85 

B4- 



"BEHOLD THE LAMB 





OF GOD" 1 










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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



Behold the Lamb of God 

Lententide Sermons by Eminent 
Servants of God 



For Mid- Week Services or Family Devotion 



Translated from the German 
By 

M., and RJ Neumann 



By 
F.C. Longaker, A. M 



1908 

The German Literary Board 

Burlington, Iowa 



! LIBRARY of Coi 
Two Copies K» 
fEB 2V 1908 




BVss- 



Copyright 1908 
by R. Neumann 
Burlington, la. 



INDEX. 

I) BEHOLD, WE GO UP TO JERUSALEM. Luke 18, 

31 — 34. Sermon on Sunday before Lent, by 
John Quandt 5 

II) LENT-OBSERVANCE OP MARY OF BETHANY. 

Matthew 26, 1 — 13. Sermon on Ash-Wednes- 
day, by Dr. E. Quandt . . . 12 

III) LESSONS ON THE WAY TO GETHSEMANE. Luke 

2 2, 31 and 3 2. For the first Week in Lent, by 
Dr. E. Rueling 23 

IV) PETER'S DENIAL. Luke 22, 54 — 62. For the Sec- 

ond Week in Lent, by Dr. Wm. Wiener 38 

V) THE WAYS OF JUDAS. Matthew 27, 1 — 5. For the 

. Third Week in Lent, by Lie. Thoel. G. Leonhardi 50 

VI) THE CHOICE BETWEEN JESUS AND BARRABAS. 

John 18, 38 — 40. For the Fourth Week in 
Lent, by Dr. M. Frommel 57 

VII) ECCE HOMO. John 19, 5. For the Fifth Week in 

Lent, by F. Dransfeld ' 66 

VIII) THE TWO MALEFACTORS A MIRROR OF HU- 

MANITY. Luke 2 3, 39 — 43. For the Fifth 
Week in Lent, by O. Brennekam 73 

IX) IT IS FINISHED. John 19, 30. On Good-Friday, 

by Dr. G. Baur 85 

X) JESUS' BURIAL. Luke 23, 50 — 56. Good-Friday 

night, by John Quandt 96 



'Behold, We Go Up to Jerusalem." 

By 

John Quandt. 

Formerly Chaplain of the Garrison at Danzig 
Pastor of the Evangelical Church in The Hague. 



AN ANTE-LENT SEHMON. 

Text: Luke 18: 31 — 34. 
"And he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, 
Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all the things that are 
written through the prophets shall be accomplished unto the 
Son of Man. For he shall be delivered up unto the Gentiles, 
and shall be mocked and shamefully treated, and spit upon; 
and they shall scourge and kill him; and the third day he shall 
rise again. And they understood none of these things; and 
this saying was hid from them, and they perceived not' the 
things that were said." 



Quinquagesima, the fiftieth day before Easter, is an an- 
cient designation for the Sunday immediately preceding Lent. 
Standing at the threshold of the time commemorative of our 
Lord's sufferings and death, this Sunday and its appointed 
Gospel exhort us to prepare worthily to remember the passion 
of our Lord. Such preparation- is, indeed, necessary. Our 
thoughts and affections are all too much occupied with the 
things of this present evil world, so that we are in danger of 
forgetting the one thing needful. Whoever forgets this one 
thing needful is a lost soul, in spite of all fidelity to civil, com- 



mercial and domestic duties. Men's minds are filled with 
plans for material successes, but Jesus Christ comes into our 
midst today with the solemn announcement: "Behold, we go 
up to Jerusalem." This is the lenten watch-word, authorized 
by our exalted Lord from his throne on high, and which we 
must write upon the fleshy tablets of our hearts, lest we perish 
in the way. Wherefore, "whoso hath an ear to hear, let him 
hear." 

"BEHOLD, WE GO UP TO JERUSALEM." 

1. Christ goes up to die for us. 

2. We go up to obtain life in him. 

O Lord, we, who are here assembled through the power 
of thy passion, do now renew our covenant of faithfulness to 
thee. And do thou, as sign and seal of thy favorable accept- 
ance of this our work of praise, say to our hearts: Amen, and 
speak to them: Peace, peace be unto you. 



Over every man's life there is an inscription, which will 
be read at the last great day by the eternal Judge. Blessed 
wilt thou be, if thine inscription be not the one which appeared 
on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace: MENE, MENE, 
TEKEL, UPHARSIN, — Numbered, weighed in the balance, and 
found wanting. Over the life of the God-Man there is also an 
inscription, which has been read and interpreted, which is: 
"For you." For you he is born, for you he lived, for you he 
gave his life unto death and shed his precious blood. 

All this, for me, to prove 
His everlasting love. 



And suppose that he had not given himself for our re- 
demption, what then? O, whither should we flee from the 
wrath of God? How still the fierce accusations of conscience? 
How silence the heart's plaintive cry for peace? Over our life's 
end this inscription would then be written, and only this: "It 
is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judg- 
ment." Even if you had lived ever so nobly, my brother and 
sister; even if you had escaped every civil and criminal tri- 
bunal, nothing of your own could save you from the judgment 
of God. Certainly not your fidelity to duty, for in that you 
have failed countless times; nor your morality, for that was 
too often compromised with your carnal inclinations; nor yet 
your philanthropy, for love to your neighbor was often the 
last thing thought of by you. Nor can riches, high position, 
or social prestige do more to deliver you from the judgment of 
God than poverty or dire misfortune. Before this unapproach- 
able Judge subterfuge is not possible, nor does excuse avail. 
There is but one veil to hide the consuming glory of his jus- 
tice, and to make it possible for the soul to stand before him: 
Jesus' blood and righteousness. 

God does not will that any should perish, but that all 
should be saved. Therefore, he has erected a lighthouse for 
the sinking ship of humanity; if it follows this light, its 
course will lead into the harbor of safety, despite its broken 
masts and torn riggings. This lighthouse is Jesus Christ; his 
light is the righteousness in his blood, and it is the only right- 
eousness which avails before God. He hath boime all our sin, 
otherwise despair would be our lot. For us he strove in Geth- 
semane; for us he let himself be betrayed for thirty pieces of 
silver; for us he let Pontius Pilate despise him, Herod scorn 
him, and Roman soldiers mock and smite and spit upon him. 
For us he was scourged and crowned with thorns. For us he 
was crucified. "Behold the Man." And our text shows that 



he knew beforehand all that should happen unto him. Where- 
fore, he tasted his bitter pains not once, but a thousand times. 
All things that were to be done unto the Son of Man were 
written beforehand by the prophets. "Surely, he hath borne 
our griefs, and carried our sorrows." "He was oppressed, 
yet when he was afflicted he opened not his mouth; as a lamb 
that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its 
shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth." "I gave my 
back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off 
the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting." Thus 
Isaiah, the evangelist in prophet's mantle, declared five hun- 
dred years before Christ. And David foresaw the tragic scene 
a thousand years before: "They part my garments among 
them, and upon my vesture do they cast lots." The passion- 
flower, which blooms beneath the cross, was planted already 
in David's garden. 

"And they understood none of these things; and this say- 
ing was hid from them, and they perceived not the things 
which were said." With this verse, as a text, and with it 
alone, ten sermons might be preached. You also may not al- 
ways be understood. But, see, this was the beginning of our 
Lord's passion, and its bitter workings have not ceased to this 
day. For the twelve everything, foretold by prophets and an- 
nounced by Jesus, was a hidden mystery. They understood it 
not. And for so many even at this day is everything, said by the 
Word and its ministers of the passion of our Lord, regarded 
as an idle tale. Right congenial to them is the carnival of 
Shrovetide, but very much of a bore the story of the Savior's 
love and death. O, that not one of you may be reckoned among 
them. O, that you all, beloved, will hear the tender call of 
the wounded One, before it is too late. Your time is growing 
short. It is again passiontide. "Behold, we go up to Jeru- 
salem." Jesus goes up to die for us. 



Let us also go up that we may find life in hirn. When the 
Israelites, as punishment for their sins in the wilderness, were 
bitten of the serpents, Moses lifted up a brazen serpent, and 
whosoever looked upon it did not die. Likewise, God has 
lifted up his Son Jesus Christ, that whosoever looks upon him 
does not only not die, but receives everlasting life. The dif- 
ference between those who know Christ and those who do not 
is altogether incomparable. O, what a difference in the daily 
life of the Christian and the non-Christian. At the rising of 
the sun the believer takes the Word of God in hand, to be 
quickened with the grace of the Highest for the day. 
Strengthened in the inner man, he takes up the performance 
of his daily duties: The Lord is his Refuge and Song and Sal- 
vation. No anxious care corrodes his heart, for nothing can 
befall him but what God has foreseen and what will prove 
salutary to him. If he experiences reverses in his calling, if 
there are hard times at home, if his heart grows heavy — even 
a Christian's heart is at times laden with heaviness, — he 
nevertheless does not despair, for his Savior comforts him: 
"Cast your burdens upon me; I will care for you." Neither is the 
Christian unduly exercised about food, or drink, or raiment. 
His heavenly Father knows that he has need of these things, 
and with that knowledge he is content. Nor is he ever alone 
or forsaken. Every moment he may commune with his Lord, 
and receive blessed answers from the ever-present Spirit. 
Thus, the believer's day passes, and at eventide he thankfully 
folds his hands and commits himself into the Lord's gracious 
care for the night, and rests in peace: For he that keepeth 
Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. 

Christians are a godly race, 

Fill'd with love and power and grace, 



10 

Fleeing all that's mean and base, 
Walking in the light, 
Keeping truth and right. 

My brethren, I have not attempted to bewitch you with 
an ignis fatuus, nor to picture an impossible paradise. Who- 
soever believes in Jesus Christ — looks upon the Crucified — 
shall enter this paradise. Nor think that what I have been 
saying does not apply to every walk in life. It would indeed 
be an evil day for our country, if the bone and sinew of every 
trade and profession were no longer impressed by the truth of 
Christ. The truth of the Scriptures is adaptable to all classes 
and conditions. Many have found its comfort in hours of grief 
and trial, but why wait until "trouble, like a gloomy cloud, 
gathers thick and thunders loud?" 

May the coming passiontide bring you life in Christ; and, 
if you have already found it, may it be deepened and quickened. 
Let me exhort you: In the coming weeks read again the pas- 
sion history of our Lord. And having done so in truth and 
sincerity, there will be none who has remained untouched. In 
this story of suffering and death, you may find comfort, quick- 
ening, peace and forgiveness. Come to Gethsemane; see the 
drops of bloody sweat on the Savior's brow; they were shed 
for thee. Come into the high-priest's palace and into the judg- 
ment hall of Pilate; in the Savior's sufferings thou wilt find 
strength to bear thine own. Go thou with him to Herod, and 
in his majestic silence learn thou to be still in thine own pains. 
And then go with him on the Via Dolorosa, up Calvary's 
mournful height, and, standing beneath his cross, do thou say: 

O spotless* Lamb, in my stead 
Thou bowedst thy bleeding head; . 
Upon the tree, thou diedst for me, 
My soul to win, from death and sin. 



11 

"It is finished," I hear thee cry, 
And now I know I shall not die. 

Truly, beloved, the gaieties of the world, the frivolities 
of society, are not consistent with meditations on the passion, 
not even for a Protestant who needs no longer to fast. For us, 
if we would be serious-minded and meditative men and women, 
passiontide must be a tempus c 1 a u s u m, a time of retire- 
ment from everything which would at all disturb the heart in 
its meditation. No man can serve two masters; whoso attempts 
it will not obtain peace and blessing from the lententide. 
Could you give yourself to idle pleasures, while your father or 
mother, wife or child lay a-dying? Behold, a greater, than 
father or mother, wife or child is here. 

"Behold, we go up to Jerusalem." Above the old Judean 
city the New Jerusalem, the City of Gold, the Rest of the Soul, 
is shining forth. No passiontide will there be commemorated, 
for all sighing and suffering is there at an end; instead of the 
cross will be found the everlasting throne; instead of the crown 
of thorns the bejeweled crown of glory will adorn the mighty 
Victor's brow. And when we have entered that City of Light, 
we shall with great and mighty songs praise him who went up 
to Jerusalem to die for us, and who in love drew us with him 
to give us life more abundantly. 

When me, my Jesus, thou dost bring 
To thy heavenly courts above, 
I'll thank and praise thee for thy love, 
In favored strains. Hallelujah. Amen. 

P. C. L. 



II. 
Lent-Observance of Mary of Bethany. 

Bv 

1) E. Quandt. 

Superintendent of the Theological Seminary at Wittenberg. 



ON ASH-WEDNESDAY. 

Matthew 26, 1 — 13. 
And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these 
sayings, he said unto his disciples, Ye know that after two days 
is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to 
be crucified. Then assembled together the chief priests, and 
the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the 
high priest, who was called Caiaphas, And consulted that they 
might take Jesus by subtility, and kill him. But they said, 
Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people. 
Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the 
leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box 
of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat 
at meat. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, 
saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment 
might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. When 
Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the 
woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye 
have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. 
For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did 
it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gos- 
pel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, 
that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her. 



The text for this evening consists of the record with which 
Matthew opens the story of Christ's Passion. The last verse is 



13 

the one which every year most impresses me. It is to-night 
the index to our devotion. "We are led in haste through the 
palace of Caiaphas, the high-priest, to land presently at Beth- 
any for a quiet Lent-Observance. Bethany, the house of 
rest. May the Holy Ghost work in us deliverance from earth- 
ly cares, in order that God may do his work within us. 

Through the palace of Caiaphas to Bethany. The high- 
priest, the scribes and the rulers of the people are met in coun- 
cil. But in this council we do not find the zeal of that coun- 
cil of the olden days, which Moses set apart to be shepherds 
over Israel, when he took of his spirit and put it upon the 
elders, so that the Spirit rested upon them and they prophe- 
sied without ceasing. These elders in the palace of Caiaphas 
were indeed zealous for the law of Moses, according to the 
letter, but the spirit of Moses had departed from them. They 
were stiffnecked, uncircumcised of heart and ears, always re- 
sisting the Holy Ghost and the most vehemently at the time 
under consideration. "And consulted that they might take 
Jesus by subtility, and kill him." Take Jesus! Take him by 
subtility! Kill Jesus! Can human brains plan such a plot 
of hell? Certainly, man can do it if he permits Satan to 
stir up the depths of his heart. The high council in Israel, 
advised by the wicked one, decides upon the passion of Jesus. 

But "take counsel together, and it shall come to nought," 
— thus the Almighty Council in heaven has always decreed, 
whenever the plans of the ungodly crossed the ways and pur- 
poses of his government. With this mighty word he has split 
the intentions of man, as the falling rock splits the trees. 
Wilt Thou, then, Almighty God keep silence? Will not Thy 
word be heard in the house of Caiaphas: "Take counsel to- 
gether and it shall come to nought?" We listen in vain — the 
mouth of the Most High remains silent. At this time the 
counsels of blind human hatred and divine Love coincide. It 



14 

was the Father's premeditated plan and will that Christ should 
be taken and slain, in order that his death and precious blood 
might bring eternal redemption to the sin-lost world. Only 
as to the time of the crucifixion did the counsel of malice 
and eternal Love diverge. The enemies in the palace said: 
"Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the peo- 
ple." But Jesus indicating his Father's counsel and will, says 
to his disciples, "Ye know that after two days is the feast of 
the passover, and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified." 
And since the highest counsel of God from eternity willed it 
thus, therefore the high council in Israel h a d to crucify the 
Saviour on the very feast day. We, therefore, conclude: The 
high council of Israel, advised by the evil foe, decrees the pas- 
sion jof Jesus; this council would have come to nought, not a 
thorn could have wounded the Sacred Head, had not the pas- 
sion of Jesus been decreed in eternity, in the upper world, in 
the supreme council of the Holy Trinity. 

Away from the palace of Caiaphas! Our souls cannot 
endure to dwell with those who hate peace. But this lesson 
we take with us: 

THE PASSION OF CHRIST, ALTHOUGH INITIATED BY 
SATAN AND HIS HELPERS, WAS PREORDAINED FOR THE 
SALVATION OF THE WORLD BY THE ETERNAL COUNSEL 
OF GOD. 

Down to Bethany! "My soul longeth for the courts of 
the Lord." The deed of the woman of Bethany, the benevo- 
lence of Mary toward her Lord, as a lent observance, shall 
be preached in the whole world, wherever the gospel of the 
crucified Saviour shall come; it shall be preached here to-night. 
Hear it, beloved, listen with open hearts, stretch forth your 
hands to pick the most beautiful of roses among the thorns of 
the Passion. 



15 
A LENT-OBSERVANCE OF MARY OF BETHANY. 

1) It is an observance of burning love. 

2) It appears foolish in the eyes of the world. 

3) It is blessed by the Lord. 

I. 

"Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon 
the leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster 
box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as 
he sat at meat." Blessed words, swelling with music! Listen 
to the sweet strains. They sing of the lent observance of Mary 
of Bethany, they praise it as a celebration of burning love. 

Mary of Bethany, aside from Mary, the mother of Jesus, 
and the three pillars, Peter, John and Paul, is the most touch- 
ing figure among the followers of Jesus. We do not know 
much about her. But we learn of three festive hours in her 
life; for these we bless her. 

At one time Jesus, the Prophet, entered her home at Beth- 
any. Martha took much pains to wait on Jesus. Mary, how- 
ever, considering only the one thing needful, chose the good 
portion. She sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to his teach- 
ing. Her heart was thirsting to drink the message of salvation 
from his divine lips. This was the celebration in honor of 
Jesus, the Prophet, a celebration of childlike faith. 

The second time she expected Jesus, the King, at Beth- 
any, He whom the Lord loved, Lazarus, was sick. She to- 
gether with her sister, sent for the Master. But Jesus tarried, 
Lazarus died, and Mary went to his sepulchre to weep. In the 
midst of her mourning she had trusted in the royal power of 
her divine friend, she had observed a celebration of hopeful 



16 

confidence. This is evidenced in her confession at the feet of 
Jesus, when the Lord came, apparently too late: "Lord, if 
Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." Yet the 
Lord did more than she had dared to hope; he raised Lazarus 
from the dead. Behold a feast of fulfilled hope. 

Today Jesus has come to Bethany, n o t a prophet with 
words of life; not a king with miraculous power. He has 
come as a highpriest, to give Himself as a sacrifice. Today 
Mary does not observe a feast of faith, not a feast of hope, 
but a feast of burning love. 

As the high priest, on the way to offer himself as a sacri- 
fice, Jesus tarries at Bethany. The Evangelist plainly states 
that Jesus made this last sojourn in intuition and presentiment 
of his approaching passion: "The Son of man is betrayed tj 
be crucified." That Mary also saw in him the Lamb of God 
innocently slain on the 'cross, Jesus Himself indicates, by say- 
ing: "In that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she 
did it for my burial." 

Now how strange! Of the disciples it is written that in 
spite of all the predictions of Christ's sufferings and death, 
"they understood none or these things," and "this saying was 
hid from them, neither knew they the things which were 
spoken." Of Peter even, the chief among the twelve, we hear 
that with regard to Christ's testimony in the last night he said: 
"Lord, this be far from Thee." Whence then has Mary the 
understanding of the approaching passion? How is it that 
while no one else knows of or notices your pain and sorrow, 
yet mother knows and notices it? How is it that while no 
one else realizes the ailments and wants of the babe in the 
cradle, yet mother finds them out? It is the working 
of true love. 

Indeed, I am sure that all of the disciples and followers 



17 

loved Jesus, but none with the burning love of Mary. She 
musingly remembers his words, the words concerning the bap- 
tism with which he was to be baptized, on account of which he 
was straitened, till it should be fulfilled. She meditated in 
her heart all that which the fore-telling of his sufferings had 
accumulated. Her loving soul connected with all these much 
of the evil devices of the high council as had from time to time 
reached her ears. With a keen eye she looked into the coun- 
tenance of the Holy One of God entering her home. Love does 
not calculate. Love feels, and feels more safely than all cal- 
culation can show. Her burning love detects the beginning 
of Christ's passion. 

This, however, would be a realization of the approach of 
the passion only, not an understanding of the passion itself. 
We think too little of Mary, if we think that she loved Jesus 
as her friend only. Nay, she loved him with the love of a poor 
sinner. It was her heart's delight to drink from the lips 
of the living Saviour, the words of life; it was her highest 
glory to behold his miracles. But at the sweetest words, at 
the most glorious miracle, her soul did not rest. She longed 
for a Saviour, dying for her; a high priest, atoning with 
his own blood. She knew that such a one was promised by Him, 
who could not lie. She knew the words of Isaiah: "Surely he 
hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." She foresaw 
that if this prophecy was to be fulfilled, there was one only who 
could fulfill it and this one was Jesus. Therefore, when she 
saw him turn in at her gate, she longingly looked into his eyes 
and read it from his features: "It is he." And while her 
heart bled over His going to the death, at the same time it 
rejoiced, since He was to die for her sins. 

Might love like this, absorbed in Christ's passion, be satis- 
fied in meditation? Indeed not. A love which receives 
the highest, must at the same time give the highest. He 



18 

does so much for you, it ponders, what will you do for him? 
Lukewarm love would have thanked lukewarmly, burning love 
must thank intensely. Mary takes the alabaster box contain- 
ing the precious ointment, and pours it upon his head, glow- 
ing in the passion-splendor of his wounds. To him, who was 
about to suffer for her, she consecrates her most precious 
possession. Had she possessed anything better, she would 
have sacrificed it with like readiness. Some interpreters have 
said, that in the sacrifice of the ointment she meant to sym- 
bolize the sacrifice of her heart. Not only her heart, however, 
but her all, her whole life she gave with this ointment; the 
ointment flowed down from the Lord, and in the ointment her 
life. 

II. 

"But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, say- 
ing, to what purpose this waste? For this ointment might 
have been sold for much and given to the poor." To what 
purpose this waste? Does not this question, following the 
service of love, sound like the croaking of the raven after the 
sweet strains of the nightingale's song have died away? How 
painful an experience: The Lent-observance of burning love is 
foolishness in the eyes of the world. 

In the eyes of the world, did I say? Ah, it would seem 
here as if it were sucn in the eyes of the congregation, the 
church. His disciples are indignant at Mary's sacrifice. 
They are not all disciples, indeed, who bear that name. The 
beloved disciples do not speak as disciples should. One of 
them, John, at a later time than this record, reports that the 
inspiration came from Judas Iscariot, the traitor. Judas then 
already had surrendered himself to the devil. The devil is 
the prince of this world. Not the spirit Satan, not the church, 
the w o r 1 d was questioning thus indignantly: "To what pur- 



19 

pose is this waste?" The world deems it foolishness, this 
Lent-Observance of Mary! They call that waste which Mary 
had done at the instigation of love. "This ointment might 
have been sold for much, and given to the poor," they calcu- 
late. There a loving heart — here a calculating mind. There 
piety of heart, which cannot do otherwise in view of the sacri- 
fice of the God-Man than to sacrifice self. Here a piety of rea- 
son, which considers it the highest deed of love, to honor the 
Lord in giving to the poor. Mary stands for the church. 
Judas, and the disciples seduced by him, for the world. Lent- 
Observances in the sense of Mary are foolishness in the eyes 
of the world, because a self-sacrificing Saviour, as well as a 
heart sacrificing itself to the Saviour, are against the reason 
and calculations of the world. 

The world calls the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, "waste." 
To what purpose the incarnation of God, the sufferings and 
death of the Holy One of God, the redemption through his 
blood? Thus the world calculates. To what purpose all this, 
since the world can be happy without Jesus. 

Of course, if in the eyes of the world, Christ's sacrifice is 
nothing, lent-observances, in whatever form they be, must 
needs appear foolishness also; most foolish, however, must 
appear a heart which gives itself a sacrifice to Christ. To 
give to the poor, in this act the world sees some sense; but to 
surrender to the crucified Saviour in glowing devotion, this is 
foolishness in its eyes. 

Are you surprised at this? I am not. The religion of 
the world has no room for sacrifice, neither for the sacrifice 
of Jesus nor for the sacrifice of a broken heart. It has no 
room for sacrifice at all. Why not? Because the world 
neither knows the depths of grace, nor the wretchedness of 
sin. Only after he has learned to realize the depth of his 



20 

sinfulness, and after he lias been impressed with the power of 
grace, i. e., after he has turned his back to the world, does 
the odor of Mary's ointment become a sweet savor to man. 

As long as this change has not taken place in the heart, 
and the world refuses to recognize the sinfulness of sin, or to 
realize the graciousness of grace, the Lent-Observance of Mary 
of Bethany is foolishness in its eyes. 



III. 



"When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble 
ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. 
For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not 
always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my 
body, she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, where- 
soever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there 
shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memo- 
rial for her." 

This sounds as if all the angels of heaven were touching 
their harps in order to drown the discord which the evil foe 
has sounded. Of all sweet words from the lips of Jesus, these 
are among the sweetest. They are a true benediction. Mary's 
deed receives the blessing of Christ. He blesses her sacrifice 
with words of praise and words of promise. 

If the apostle in a passage well known to you all, praises 
well-doing and communicating, and adds that the most beautiful 
blessing of these sacrifices is that they are well-pleasing to God, 
we may learn from this word that the sacrifice of love is still 
more pleasing to Jesus than the sacrifice of mercy towards the 
brethren. See, Mark 14: 7. He adds, according to Mark's 
report, "But me ye have not always." "Me ye have not al- 
ways," what does that mean but this: I part from the life in 



21 

the flesh, in order to suffer death for you; you ought to know 
this, since I have often enough told you; but you do not know- 
it, nor do you desire to know it, since you neither know your 
guilt enough to desire a dying Saviour, nor my grace enough 
•to see in me the dying Saviour. Mary knows both her great 
guilt and my greater grace, therefore she realizes that she 
will not have me much longer without blood and wounds. 
She not only knows this, but also loves me for the sake of my 
approaching death; therefore she has anointed me; therefore, 
"she hath wrought a good work upon me." Thus Jesus glori- 
fies Mary's deed with special praise. For highly as he values 
the mite of the widow, much higher does he account the sac- 
rifice of a heart surrendering to him, the Man of Sorrows, as 
a price of pain. 

To the word of praise he adds a word of promise. "Where- 
soever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole 
world, this also that she hath done shall- be spoken of for a 
memorial of her." Here Jesus links together the remembrance 
of Mary and his eternal glory. And as he promised thus it 
came to pass: 

Wherever it is praised 

What Christ, the Lord, has done, 

The lowly maid is raised 

Among the heroes one 

Who for the strife of torture and of scoff 

Hath strewed his path with roses sweet of love. 

And even in this hour again the Lord's promise is ful- 
filled. We, too, bless the memory of Mary's celebrating love. 

I am at the end. But I cannot close properly, let the 
Lord close. When by the mercy of the Lord our hearts have 
become like Mary's heart, our Lent-Observance like Mary's 



22 

then we will not only bless the Lord with Mary, but also will 
we, like Mark, be blessed by the Lord. 

O Lord, close this service in memory of Thy passion, close 
it with that same blessing, with which Thou didst bless Mary 
of Bethany. Amen. 

R. N. 



HI. 



Lessons on the Way to Gethsemane. 



By 
Consistorial Councillor 

Dr. Rueling. 

+ Court Chaplain at Dresden. 



THE FIRST WEEK IN LENT. 

Luke 22, 31 and 32. 
And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath de- 
sired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have 
prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art con- 
verted, strengthen thy brethren. 



O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of 
the world, have mercy upon us! With this ancient hymn, which 
we chant in connection with the consecration of bread and wine 
in the Holy Sacrament, I begin this series of passion sermons. 
I implore Almighty God that He may bless our Lententide, in 
order that the word of the cross, foolishness to many modern 
Greeks, a stumbling-block to many modern Jews, may to you 
become more and more the power of God. Since this word, 
"Christ, the Lamb of God," originated in the mouth of John 
the Baptist, we infer that Christ himself in his baptism in 
the Jordan foresaw a type and a prophecy of his last sufferings, 
so that before entering through the gate of his holy passion 
he informed his disciples, "I have a baptism to be baptised 
with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished." At 
the baptism of adult Jews or Gentiles, as well as in the case 



24 

of our infant baptism, the ritual prescribes that the subject 
of baptism should be marked with the sign of the cross; then 
God should be invoked over it; then its confession heard; and 
finally its head sprinkled, while the sacramental words are 
uttered. Behold this same order of things in our Lord's 
baptism of sufferings. The sign of the cross He bore from a 
child by virtue of prophecy: the old masters painted the in- 
fant Jesus lying on a cross or with a little cross in his hand. 
Most of all, Jesus marked himself with the cross when, after 
the last passover with his disciples, he passed the bread and 
the wine, saying, "Take, eat, this is my body; drink ye all of 
it. This cup is the New Testament in my blood." Then 
followed the invocation of God. Not by another in his stead, 
but He himself, the Lord, in Gethsemane invoked his Father, 
"If it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not 
as I will, but as thou wilt." This again was followed by a 
great confession. For when, in the presence of the whole 
council, in answer to the command of the high priest, "I 
adjure Thee by the living God that Thou tell us, whether Thou 
be the Christ, the Son of God," Jesus replied, "Thou hast said," 
and in confirmation of this impressive, "Thou hast said," 
added, "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the 
right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." He 
bore testimony of himself. And this confession given before 
the highest authority of the people, in the face of death, as 
a holy oath, to this day in every true believer removes every 
doubt of the Deity of Christ. This testimony He confirmed 
before Pilate in majestic speech, before Herod in majestic 
silence, until finally at His ascension He crowned this con- 
fession by inserting His own name between that of the Father 
and the Holy Ghost. The confession now as the grand finale, 
is followed by the baptism of his sufferings. When the fear- 
ful Roman lashing lacerated his back, when the rude multi- 



25 

tude played a scornful masquerade with the King of Heaven, 
when thus disguised the Holy One of Israel was given over 
to the scoffing of the whole rabble, when finally in agony of 
death He suffered the punishment of an evil-doer, he might 
have exclaimed: "Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of Thy 
waterspouts; all Thy waves and billows are gone over me." 
This was indeed a baptism of sufferings. A baptism, however, 
in which He did not remain under water, but as every subject 
of baptism is purified, so He came out of the destruction of 
death to a joyful resurrection; after the cross of Good Fri- 
day, the joy of Easter. 

Thus in quick .succession the whole passion of Christ 
has passed in review before our eyes. Step by step we will 
now follow it in our Lenten services, seizing the words which 
Christ spoke on that short but all-important day, and hearing 
the words also which were spoken concerning him. 

We place ourselves, in spirit, in that night between Thurs- 
day and Friday. It was about 11 o'clock. The passover of 
the Old Testament had been followed by the passover of the 
New Testament, the institution of the Lord's Supper. The 
hymn had been sung; the disciples, except Judas, proceeded 
with the Lord out of the city on the hills, down the steep path 
to the brook Kidron. The moon full-orbed illumines the 
scene. In its soft glow we see glittering over from Mt. Moriah 
the marble walls of the temple. The Lord continues the 
earnest conversation of the Holy Supper: "Yet a little while 
am I with you. Ye shall seek me and as I said unto the Jews, 
whither I go, ye cann'ot come." And Peter replied: "Lord, 
whither goest Thou?" And the Lord turns to the questioner: 
"Whither I go thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt fol- 
low me afterwards." And Peter retorts: "Lord, why cannot I 
follow Thee now? I will lay down my life for Thy sake." 
And the Lord: "Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to 



26 

have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed 
for thee that thy faith fail not; and when thou art converted, 
strengthen thy brethren." Says Peter to him: "Lord, I am 
ready to go with Thee, both into prison and to death." And 
Jesus said: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, before the cock 
crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice." Such the conversation 
on the way to Gethsemane. In it we find the text indicated: 
It will be before us a Warning, a Consolation and an Obliga- 
tion. 

Let me ask: WHAT LESSONS DOES JESUS TEACH ON 
HIS WAY TO GETHSEMANE FOR OUR DAYS OP TRIAL? 

1) That we have an enemy, threatening in the 
depths of hell. 

2) That we have a friend, interceding in heaven. 

3) That we have a duty toward the friend who saved 
us from the enemy; the duty to strengthen the 
brethren. 

I. 

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job, 
That man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God. 
To him, God, whose faithful servant he was, sent one trial after 
the other to test his piety. And one day, when the angels 
came to present themselves before the Lord, Satan, the evil 
angel, came with them to slander Job: "Doth Job fear God 
for nought? Put forth thine hand now and touch all that 
he hath, and he will curse Thee to Thy face." You know how 
Job fooled Satan and held fast to his faith, "I know that my 
Redeemer liveth," and how ultimately he was justified, and 
rewarded by God. 

We are reminded of this old story, when here we hear the 



Lord say, "Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that 
he may sift you as wheat." We do not know whether or not 
the adversary of God and his kingdom had accused these 
simple fishermen and publicans, elected to be- the apostles of 
Christ; whether or not he had put forth the claim, "They are 
no pure wheat; let me touch them, let me shake them through 
the sieve of trial, and you will see that they are but chaff." 
As long as the twelve were in the personal ward of their 
Master, as long as they were not separated from Him, as Ju- 
das now was, the evil one was unable to touch them. But 
after the shepherd had been smitten and the sheep were scat- 
tered, the wolf had an easy game, and he selected as his prey 
the chief among them, knowing that the others would folloAV. 
"Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have thee," the Lord 
says. Not unintentionally, he calls him "Simon," the name 
by which he was known among his people before Jesus called 
him. He warns the disciple, since he was born flesh from flesh. 
He addresses him separately, since on account of his tem- 
perament he was the one most endangered. Jesus says, "Si- 
mon, Simon," to make the more urgent his warning. He wants 
him to remember this earnest plea in the hour of temptation. 
Should we be surprised at Jesus' manner of speaking, con- 
necting Satan with his own last experiences and the conse- 
quences of these for his disciple? Here the whole depth of 
sin became apparent. Sin appeared in its true nature: En- 
mity against God, rebellion against God! For the only Sin- 
less One, for the only Holy One who ever walked on earth, 
SIN had prepared the death of a criminal on the 
gallows! Only hell and its tools could accomplish this. 
The whole extent of sin became manifest. Behold, all the 
organs of public service, in state and church, united for the 
execution of Jesus of Nazareth! The high council, with its 
chairman, the high priest; the Roman governor and his 



28 

soldiers; the tetrarch of Galilee and his courtiers; the two 
great politico-religious parties in Judea, the Pharisees and the 
Sadducees; the people incited by them; and added to all, one 
of the disciples, Judas, the spy, who had sold his Master for 
the price of thirty pieces of silver. Truly a formidable organi- 
zation for resistance against the living God, the God of 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God who had promised to send 
this Messiah. Was it not a well-planned, infernal federation? 
Now we understand why Jesus, who with divine eyes looked 
through this whole gruesome connection, called out, "Satan 
hath desired to have thee." And the disciples themselves, at 
the time they did not understand it. But after the Holy Ghost 
had enlightened them, and led them into the depth of the 
truth, then — their epistles are a testimony — they looked 
through the veil of outward occurrences into the dark abyss, 
where the prince of this world breeds his nefarious plots 
against the kingdom of heaven. And how they did warn 
their congregations against the devil, who goes about like a 
roaring lion, lying in wait in the dark like a wily serpent, 
seeking, whom he may devour! 

I now ask you, is it not true that we have an enemy 
threatening in the depths of hell? Or is humanity too well 
educated to understand the connection between the world of 
good and of evil spirits? O, the same Lord and Saviour, who 
attributed the failure of a good sowing in turn to the hard 
or thin, or stony soil of human hearts, also said of the 
weeds, sown among the wheat: "An enemy hath done this." 
Do you intend to be more learned than your Saviour? In- 
deed, we have an enemy, threatening in the depths of hell! 
It is not the way of the Word of God to expressly attribute all 
evil to the personal devil. It says, "Thine own wickedness 
shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee." 
It describes the history of sin: "Every man is tempted, when 



29 

lie is drawn away of Ms own lust and enticed. Then when 
lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is 
finished, bringeth forth death." But in all the great battles, 
such as that between belief and unbelief between Christ and 
antichrist, between the holy order of God and the powers 
of anarchism, the Scriptures trace evil to the ultimate source. 
Behind the atrocious acts which ungodliness generates, behind 
the discourses of blood and incendiarism, delivered by fana- 
tical men and women, we surmise the secret superhuman 
background. We say, "These tongues were fired in hell." We 
give warning to all in Christ, to all desirous of salvation: 
We have an enemy, threatening in the depths of hell! How 
strange to hear people deny the influence of invisible powers 
upon heart and life, a kingdom of darkness with a powerful 
prince to rule it, when Jesus on every page of his gospel as- 
sures us of it. "Superstition," we hear a voice crying; and 
yet how many are occupied with this invisible world! I re- 
fer to the ever-increasing deception of spiritualism. I know 
educated men, who formerly looked with contempt upon the 
believers in a world to come, who denied the power of God, 
who now are sitting in the half light of locked chambers, 
amidst the spirits, where into a circle of half-witted, ignorant 
confessors the spirits of the dead are cited and their revela- 
tions listened to as a gospel. Tnese same men, who formerly 
denied the existence of God, believe this, although God has 
revealed nothing of it, nay, has expressly forbidden in his law 
to ask anything of the dead. But when Jesus says, "Satan has 
desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat," they shrug 
their shoulders and will not believe. 

Dear Christians, take to yourselves the shield of faith, 
wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of 
the wicked. You have your Gethsemanes, you see times of 
suffering, or you see them approaching in your failing health, 



30 

or in the lingering illness of father or mother. Times of 
hard battles with flesh and blood, with conditions around you 
in your calling. You implore, "Father, if it be possible, re- 
move this cup." Do not enter into the battle or trial like Si- 
mon, who fancied himself safe in the path of righteousness, 
but who after all was so weak that a little danger and dis- 
favor overthrew him. Raise the question within yourself: 
What if the enemy of my soul and my salvation should desire to 
have me? I will watch, and humble myself under God's mighty 
hand, that He may help me, that I fall not into the net of the 
evil one. If sucn is your disposition, then you may say with 
Luther: 

This world's prince may still 

Scowl fierce as he will, 

He can harm us none, 

He's judged, the deed is done, 

One little word o'ertnrows him. 

This Word is Jesus. Therefore, we proceed: 



II. 



We have a friend interceding in heaven. This is the 
second lesson on the way to Gethsemane, for our Gethsemane 
hours. "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not," Jesus 
continues. Did this really come to pass? Simon, thinking 
rather that the heavens could pass away than that he could 
forsake his Master, had made his way to the court of the 
high priest's palace. Arrived there, he had been driven by 
the trivial scorn of the servants to make the cowardly decla- 
ration, 'I know him not, I am not the man, I am not a follower 
of Jesus of Nazareth." What a contrast between this coward- 
ice and the heroic confession, "I am the Son of God," made 



31 

by Christ before the chief council. And further, where was 
Christ's intercession when Simon Peter, in order to escape, 
applied to himself in deed the word addressed in warning to 
the Master a few days before, -"Spare thyself," taking shelter 
behind the lying declaration, "Man, I know not what thou 
sayest." Nothing but chaff manifested itself in this disciple. 
And so we ask again, where is Christ's intercession? 

Jesus did not intend to pray that the sifting be spared 
Peter and the rest. By no means, but only that the chaff 
that was in them should come to light, an everlasting gain to 
Peter, in order that the wheat which was in him might be 
purified. His deep fall was to be the cause of Simon becoming 
Peter, the rock. "That thy faith fail not," this was the im- 
port of Christ's prayer, and thus it came to pass. One com- 
mentator says: "If Satan, whose injurious influence reaches 
no further than his chain, had been given room, to precipi- 
tate the disciple after his fall into despair, Peter's end might 
have been similar to that of Judas." He may be right. But 
God be praised, on account of Christ's intercession, Peter's 
faith did not finally fail him. Scarcely had the cock crowed, 
and with his morning alarm awakened and terrified the sleep- 
ing conscience, when the whole conversation of the night came 
back to Peter; the prediction of his fall as well as tne assur- 
ance of Christ's prayer in his behalf. Now his heart, amid 
streaming tears, embraces the mercy of the Lord and draws 
this consolation: It is not all over with me. Despite this igno- 
minious defeat, I may yet return. Thus he did not hasten to 
secure the rope, he did not, like Judas, run for the tree above 
the steep precipice. He hastened into solitude, he wept bit- 
terly. His repentance worked that godly sorrow which is 
unto salvation not to be repented of. The device of the evil 
foe for Peter's destruction was turned by means of the great 
intercession into blessing and life. The chaff of natural virtue, 



32 

the former ground of Peter's reliance, was driven away; the 
pure wheat of grace remained in his broken heart 

We have a friend, interceding in heaven. The Christ, 
condemned by Caiaphas for blasphemy, led to Pilate, tried and 
crucified, now intercedes for his own at the Father's throne. 
As on the way to Gethsemane, providing care for his small 
fold occupied his soul, so does it still, when in his hands he 
holds the reins of government of his church. For he still be- 
holds the infernal eagles drawing their circles closer and closer 
above the heads of his beloved, seeking to snatch the lambs 
away from his fold. Or are we to apply his consolation and 
promise to his disciples only? We have, as we will remember, 
among the discourses at the institution of the Lord's Supper, 
recorded by John, what we call the high-priestly prayer. This 
prayer of Jesus is an index of the intercession of Jesus the 
high priest. We read, John 17, 9: ."I pray for them, which 
Thou hast given me; for they are thine;" and a little farther 
on, "those that Thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them 
is lost, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might be 
fulfilled." But we also read in verse 20: "Neither pray I for 
these alone, but for them also, which shall be- 
lieve on me through their wo r d." This refers 
to us, as many as have been joined to him in faith, as many as 
can sing with the pious Count Zinzendorf: 

Thou, Christ, the Head, and we the members; 
Thou, Christ, the Light, the lustre we; 
Thou, the Master, and we, the brethren, 
As Thou'rt ours, belong to Thee. 

We have a friend interceding in heaven. He prays for us. 
Now our faith may be tempted, assailed, shaken; but fail — 
it cannot. 



33 

I behold you, pressed in the oilpress of suffering — (G e t h- 
s e m a n e, that is, oilpress). Even now some of you are in 
distress and anxiety, and the prospects are for further visita- 
tion rather than alleviation. Often in secret do you venture 
the question, and by and by you ask it louder and louder, 
"Can it be God who does this? Can God see his poor creature 
thus vexed in sorrow? C a n He not help, or does He not want 
to help?" Your faith wavers. It turns to the modern philo- 
sophy of pessimism, which teaches, God would be the devil 
himself, if He had made all this misery; there is no God, and 
therefore non-existence is the best fortune. Your faith is wa- 
vering, but, behold, your high-priest intercedes that your faith 
fail not. He calls you through his servants, through tried 
friends. Again you stand below the cross, you feel coming over 
you new strength to bear with your lot, until you can say, 
"It is finished." You walk through the valley of the shadow of 
death, but Christ's intercession is a rod and staff to comfort 
you. 

I behold you with a soul sick of sin, desiring to be free 
from its slavery. Ever and again with redoubled force sin re- 
turns. You pray, yet your sin is stronger than your prayer; 
you are about to give up the fight with the cry, "I am lost." 
"I cannot change," you exclaim; "God has forsaken me, if 
there is a God." Dismiss the thought. The high-priest, who 
has shed his blood for you, watches your agony; in spite of 
your sin, he loves you. He intercedes "that your faith fail 
not." Depend on it; seize the forgiveness of sin, and as often 
as sin has overpowered you, make your way anew to the heart 
of the Intercessor and you will find that He, your deliverer, 
will finally help you to gain the victory, so that with Luther 
you may triumph: "The bonds are broken, my soul is free." 

What would be our life, if we were not borne up by the 
intercession of the Friend of our souls. Our only confidence 



34 

amidst earth's misery is his merit, not our own. From how 
many a fall has He kept us! When heaven and hell, all un- 
known to ourselves, were struggling for our souls, how often 
has He saved us from falling into the abyss of eternal misery! 

Prepare, ye christian friends, to-day 

The foes have sought you for their prey 

Yea, Satan has desired you. 

Put on the armour of God's Word 

And fight with vigor, undisturbed 

That ye may all his viles undo. 

And should he still assail 

Here's our IMMANUEL. 
Hosanna! 
Lo Satan yields, 
Christ the sceptre wields — 
He stands victorious on the field. 

III. 

Christ's exhortation is not finished. He adds a far-reach- 
ing, earnest commandment to his promise: "When thou art 
converted, strengthen thy brethren." 

What is here, before Peter's fall, indicated as his future 
calling, Jesus afterwards repeats in other words. Along with 
the threefold question: "Simon, son of Jona, lovest thou me," 
he gives the threefold commission: "Feed my lambs." And 
thus it was fulfilled; thus it is to this day. Anyone desirous 
of becoming a pastor of the flock, must have given evidence of 
a broken and contrite heart, must have learned to confess, 
"By the grace of God I am what I am." The shepherd of the 
sheep must be able to say from experience, the grace of God 
has found me; he must realize that of his own strength he can 
do nothing, it is Christ in his sufficiency. Then only will he 



35 

not in haughtiness despise the weak in faith, then only will he 
strengthen weary hearts and support the stumbling feet; he 
will not condemn the poor sinner, he will not crush the broken 
reed, but help his fellowmen in meekness of spirit. A proud 
Pharisee is not fit to be a pastor. Peter in after years truly did 
strengthen the brethren and became a pillar of the church. 
Truly did he fulfill the promise given by Davil in the 51st 
psalm after his fall, "I will teach transgressors thy ways; and 
sinners shall be converted unto Thee." When in his Pente- 
costal sermon he confessed Christ, the crucified and risen Lord, 
and preached with such power that the hearts of three thousand 
people were pierced, he strengthened his brethren. When be- 
fore the chief council, after the edict had gone forth, forbid- 
ding to preach in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, he exclaimed, 
"We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and 
heard," then and there he strengthened the brethren. When 
afterwards during another persecution he declared, "We ought 
to obey God rather than men," he strengthened the brethren. 
When at the synod at Jerusalem he endorsed the work of 
foreign missions and sided with Paul, saying, "We believe that 
through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved 
even as they," he strengthened the brethren. Finally let us 
scan the holy record in Peter's two epistles, and especially 
that glorious chapter treating of the blessings of the cross and 
of the glorious hope, and surely we must confess: Peter did 
carry out the commission given him by the Lord. Having been 
converted himself in the battle of repentance, he afterward 
strengthened the brethren, and still strengthens them; yea, 
will strengthen them as long as the book of Acts and his two 
epistles shall be read. 

But the commission to Peter is given to us all. "When 
thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." To us also be- 
longs this duty. I speak to those who at one time were indif- 



36 

ferent towards the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, 
but who, whether through the preaching of the Word, or by 
special experiences in life, have come to appreciate the sad con- 
dition of the natural heart, have been converted to Christ, and 
are now saved by faith. Do you think it right, to desire salva- 
tion for yourselves only, and to let others run to their destruc- 
tion? What can I do? you say. I am no pastor, no preacher. 
I grant this. Yet you may faithfully give expression to your 
faith when meeting with doubters of and unbelievers in God's 
grace. You may warn the wayward children x>f the world in 
their sinful course, or those who stray in forgetfulness of 
their confirmation vow. You may console and strengthen the 
sick, who it may be have no consolation of faith and no eter- 
nal hope. You may testify the peace which rules in your 
heart, now that the storms of doubt and unbelief within you 
have been abated by the grace of God. Let me assure you 
that the testimonies of a believing soul, of a plain Christian, 
have often done more than all the words of a faithful pastor, 
who was not understood, whose business it is, as men say, to 
pray and console. You may strengthen your brothers and 
sisters. 

The self-righteous Pharisees of rationalism as well as 
the giddy Sadducees of materialism still call the Lord of 
Heaven before their judgment seat. They claim that Jesus 
falsely proclaimed himself the Saviour and Messiah, they 
deny him his divine honor and attributes. They tell us that 
their reason has carefully scrutinized it all, they assure us 
that all of his history is nothing but poetry, or a mixture of 
truth and poetry, at best. In such cases it becomes our duty 
to give utterance to our religious convictions. We dare not, 
as we prize our soul's salvation, be silent, or even say with 
Peter before his conversion, "I know not the man," I am not 
versed in these things, I cannot debate them. In the spirit 



37 

of thanksgiving for what Christ has done for us we must 
joyfully exclaim: I am not ashamed of the gospel 
of Christ. That means to strengthen the brethren. 

Let us do this. Fight the good fight of faith. You have, 
indeed, an enemy, threatening in the depth of hell, but you 
have also a Friend interceding in heaven. This friend is 
far mightier than that foe, and you must win over for the 
cause of this Friend those who are still following the banner 
of Satan, in order that they too may find forgiveness and peace 
in his holy and precious blood. I have always somewhat 
hesitated to sing with the late Novalis his blessed hymn: 

If a 1 1 in faith would fail Thee, 
I always will be true. 

But every Christian will be glad to join the last stanza, 
as giving expression to a petition for himself and to his hope 
for others who have not, as yet accepted Christ: 

"I've felt Thy blessed nearness 
O don't depart from me; 
Let ever in Thy kindness 
My heart be joined to Thee. 
Some day my wayward brethren 
Will eyes turn heavenward 
And seized by love unbounded 
Embrace Thy bleeding heart. Amen. . 

R. N. 



IV. 

Peter's Denial. 

By 

Dr. William Wiener, 

Dean in Worms. 



THE SECOND WEEK IN LENT. 

Text: Luke 22, 54 — 62. 
"And they seized him, and led him away, and brought him 
into the high-priest's house. But Peter followed afar off. And 
when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the court, and had 
sat down together, Peter sat in the midst of them. And a cer- 
tain maid seeing him as he sat in the light of the fire, and look- 
ing steadfastly upon him, said, This man also was with him. 
But he denied, saying, Woman, I know him not. And after a 
little while another saw him, and said, Thou also art one of 
them. But Peter said, Man, I am not. And after the space of 
about one hour another confidently affirmed, saying, Of a 
truth this man also was with him; for he is a Galilean. But 
Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And imme- 
diately, while he yet spake, the cock crew. And the Lord 
turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the 
word of the Lord, how that he said unto him, Before the cock 
crow this day thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out 
and wept bitterly." 



In Christ Jesus dearly beloved. Today we behold again 
the suffering Savior, and may his holy eye probe the inmost 
depths of our souls. We read in the first verse of the text: 
"And they seized him, and led him away, and brought him 



39 

into the high-priest's house." There they condemned him to 
death. But for what? 

"We cannot understand the woe 
Thy love was pleased to bear; 
O Lamb of God, we only know 
That all our hopes are there." 

"The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with 
his stripes we are healed." By reason of his unjust condemna- 
tion, we shall, if we believe, escape the most just judgment 
of God. But while the trial is going on in the palace of the 
high-priest, another event is transpiring which must not be 
omitted from our lenten meditations: Peter's threefold de- 
nial of Christ. How the Lord's sufferings must have been in- 
tensified by that deed of darkness. O, were there not thorns 
enough in his path to Calvary, that his fleeing, denying, be- 
traying disciples must scatter more and sharper ones! Peter's 
denial is indeed an integral part of the Savior's passion. Let 
us, therefore, seriously consider this wavering of Peter. What 
does it preach to us? Is it not the word: "It is a good thing 
for the heart to be established by grace," by grace, and not 
•by a mock heroism? And when we later consider the repent- 
ance of Peter, then soon to be restored, what is the word of 
encouragement to be learned from his conversion? Is it not 
again the truth: "It is a good thing for the heart to be estab- 
lished by grace," by that grace which is powerful in the hum- 
ble and meek? Today, then, let this text speak through me 
and apply the lessons 

OP PETER'S DENIAL, OR — 

IT IS A GOOD THING FOR THE HEART TO BE 

ESTABLISHED BY GRACE. 



40 
A salutary exposition of this truth, is 

1. Peter's fall, and 

2. His repentance. 

O Lord, who didst comfort thine apostle by declaring 
unto him, that thy grace is sufficient, and that thy power is 
made perfect in weakness; grant unto us, we beseech thee, 
that we may glory in our weakness, so that thy mighty power 
may dwell in us. Thou alone canst grant unto us both to will 
and to do those things which are acceptable in thy sight; create 
in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit within us, that 
we may heartily love and joyfully confess thee in the midst 
of every temptation, and grant that in every time of trial 
and in the dark hour of death, we may joyfully sing: 

"I rest me here without a fear; 

By thee shall all be given 
That I can need, O Friend indeed, 

For this life of for heaven. 
O, make me true, my heart renew, 

My soul and flesh deliver; 
Lord, hear my prayer, and in thy care 

Keep me in peace forever." Amen. 

"It is a good thing for the heart to be established by 
grace." 

I. 

Of this truth Peter's fall is a quickening commentary. 
Guided by the text let us prayerfully appiy it to our own 
hearts and lives. 

Verse 54. "But Peter followed afar off." Since we may 
interpret a man's character by means of his deeds, let us read 



41 

Peter's heart by following in detail his denial of the Lord. 
What was it, then, that impelled him to follow into the high- 
priest's house — into danger? Pride, curiosity, and love. 
Pride. When the Savior was foretelling the desertion of the 
disciples, Peter exalted himself above the rest, and proudly, 
declared: -I will lay down my life for thee." And as the 
Master was warning him of the threefold denial, he no doubt 
kept thinking: Good, we shall see; my devotion is not yet 
recognized. My word is my bond. Thus, in his own estima- 
tion he thought himself strong enough to pass on through the 
gates of the high-priest's palace, saying to himself: Why 
should I remain behind? On, follow him. Though he felt 
himself restrained as by a hundred arms, his obstinacy pre- 
vailed, and Peter followed from afar into the court of the 
high-priest's house. Need we be surprised that he fell? For 
"pride goeth before a fall," and, "let him that thinketh he 
standeth, take heed lest he fall." Never imagine that, to 
withstand temptation, it is enough to be strong in the flesh: 
temptation is a monster, breathing pestilence and death, 
against which the weapons of a carnal warfare are not suffi- 
cient. If you must go among the enemies of Christ, and mingle 
with them in the varied relationships of life, think not that 
"a bold front is half the battle." Remember Peter. Peter 
was further impelled by his curiosity to follow the Master. 
Certainly, he wanted to see the outcome of the trial and of 
his expected lieutenancy in the Kingdom of Jesus. But doubt- 
less love for his Lord also drew him on. "Should I not," 
he thought "also share his trials, who shared so many of his 
joys?" His heart was stirred by many conflicting emotions. 
It was no longer fixed like the rock, but unstable as sand. 
See him now in the court of the high-priest's house. 

Verse 55. "And when they had kindled a fire in the midst 
of the court, and had sat down together, Peter sat in the midst 



42 

of them." In that cold night they kindled a warm fire, but 
hotter was the fire of their hatred toward Christ. Before that 
fire Peter sat, warming himself, and acting as though he had 
no interest at all in the proceeding. The hero is on dangerous 
ground. There he sat and heard how the Lord was despised 
and condemned. And as he saw the unfavorable outcome of 
the trial he shook as with the chill of a fever; his bravery 
trembled in the balance. But see; he will directly play a still 
more pitiful role. 

Verse 56. "And a certain maid seeing him as he sat in 
the light of the fire, and looking steadfastly upon him, said, 
This man also was with him." In this maid the power of 
darkness approached the unguarded heart of Peter. At other 
places in the Gospels, and especially in the passion-history, 
only believing women are mentioned, that they might be ex- 
amples to you, my sisters, who in these days should be es- 
pecially active in the service of the Lord. Particularly should 
you not walk in the ways of Eve, enticing others to unbelief 
and sin. O, for how many denials of the Lord have women 
been responsible? On the contrary, they ought to exercise a 
religious influence over men, especially over their own hus- 
bands. It is distressing enough, when a man tells his wife 
upon her return from church, that she is not to mention the 
name of Jesus in his presence; but it is a thousandfold worse, 
when, like a Job's wife, she entices her husband to curse 
God and die. Not all men can withstand like Job. 

Verse 57. "But he denied, saying Woman, I know him 
not." In Gethsemane Peter had drawn a sword and smitten 
off a servant's ear; but in the court of the high-priest's house 
a maid — a lady of the broom — causes him to quake and trem- 
ble. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is ex- 
ceedingly corrupt; who can know it?" 

Verse 58. "And after a little while another saw him, 



43 

and said, Thou also art one of them. But Peter said, Man 
I am not." Concerning his doctrines, the Jews had inquired 
of Christ, and in reply he referred them to his disciples. This, 
then, was Peter's opportunity. Now he might have kept his 
word, and answered bravely for his Master. The council had 
sought, (and found) false witnesses against Christ. Here 
was an opportunity for a true witness effectively to contradict 
false testimony. But what does Peter do? Hear him: 
"Woman, I know him not." "Man, I am not." 

The Evangelists show how restless Peter became. Now 
he followed from afar, now he sat by the fire, now he walked 
about on the porch, wavering, uncertain, like a flickering 
light. And, my brethren, you will be like Peter, if your heart 
is not established by the Lord's grace. 

Verse 59. "And after the space of about one hour an- 
other confidently affirmed, saying, Of a truth this man also 
was with him; for he is a Galilean." This time his speech 
betrayed him. The true Christian is also betrayed to the men 
of the world by his speech; for he does not curse and swear, 
as they do; he is not familiar with their jests and sacrilege; 
nor does he say, "For Goodness' sake," but, "If God wills," 
instead of "accident," he speaks of "providence," in place of 
saying, "inbred weakness," he gives it its correct name, "sin." 
For this he will be derided and mocked, and unless his heart 
is established by grace, he can never hope to win the victory. 
Peter is a warning. 

Verse 60. "But Peter said, Man, I know not what thou 
sayest." The hour is growing dark for Peter, and, as Matthew 
relates, he began to curse and to swear: "I do not know the 
Man." In the most shameful manner he transgressed the Second 
Commandment. O, Peter, Peter, how art thou fallen. "Who- 
soever commits sin is the servant of sin." When the Alpine 



44 

snows thaw and loosen, they form a mighty avalanche, sweep- 
ing down the mountain side carrying death and destruction in 
its wake. Peter, it is true, did not, like Judas, betray his Lord 
and Master; but — and was not that enough? — he denied him. 
He was basely ungrateful toward his Friend and Master, the 
Son of God. To such lengths he was carried by his unstable 
heart. "It is a good thing for the heart to be established by 
grace," and by grace alone. 

Therefore, "blessed are the poor in spirit." Do you feel 
yourself right strong? Beware, Peter's experiences will soon be 
yours. Or, is it going too far to say that it is still possible for 
men to deny the Lord? Let us see: You come into the society 
of men who despise and mock and deride Christ and his disci- 
ples; if you do not attempt to curb their vain-glorying; or, if 
you are amused by their blasphemy and jest, do you not 
under the circumstances say: "I do not know the Man?" 
Or, if you do not try to quicken the mere nominal Christian 
by showing to him the wonders done by Christ in your own 
soul, or the miracles wrought in the Church, do you not then 
deny your Lord? Or, you, who in your confirmation conse- 
crated your whole life to Christ and his service, but since then 
have rejected Word and Sacrament, have you not for years de- 
nied the Master? Be warned: "Whosoever will deny me be- 
fore men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in 
heaven." And you, who attend regularly the public worship, 
and glory in the cross, you must order your lives in accord 
with the doctrines of our Savior; your religion must be a re- 
ality in your business and conversation; you must renounce 
envy and revenge; in fine, you must become a living member 
of that body of which. Christ is the Head. Unless you do, 
your deeds deny your profession, and the world reads in your 
lives that you are ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. O, be- 
loved, we have all denied Christ numberless times. Let us 



45 

not be ashamed to acknowledge our sin and repent. Peter's 
fall forever proclaims: "It is a good thing for the heart to 
be established by grace." 

"We are greatly encouraged to believe this truth. 

II. 

By Peter's repentance. 

For, "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." 

Verse 60. "And immediately, while he yet spake, the 
cock crew." This had been foretold by the Lord, and his word 
is faithful. This cock-crowing was for Peter, a call to re- 
pentance. Thus, we also may be admonished to repentance 
by the daily crowing of the chanticleer. We daily deny our 
Lord, if not in open sin, at least in the imagination of our 
hearts. And, if we were forgetful of our Christian privileges, 
and became coarse and immoderate in our pleasures, O, may 
the morning and its cock-crowing lead us to repentance. Not 
without reason did our forefathers place cocks upon their 
church-spires; the sight of them was to preach repentance. 
Yes, may the lofty spires on our churches point us heaven- 
ward, whence Jesus gives grace, upon grace, and let us ever 
humbly pray: 

"My soul, be on thy guard; 

Ten thousand foes arise, 
And hosts of sin are pressing hard 

To draw thee from the skies. 
O, watch, and fight, and pray, 

The battle ne'er give o'er; 
Renew it boldly every day, 

And help divine implore." 



46 

And may the funeral bells, echoing the tramp of the 
solemn procession to the grave, stir your soul within you and 
move you to fall weeping at Jesus' feet to pray for grace and 
guidance to lead you home. And may the Word, so richly 
preached, be to you a spiritual cock-crowing, telling of the 
dawn of a better day. In the day of your prosperity turn to 
the Lord with all your heart, that he need not awaken you 
by messengers of woe. For his fallen disciples, the agoniz- 
ing Savior has yet another remedy. 

Verse 61. "And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. 
And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how that he said 
unto him, Before the cock crow this day thou shalt deny me 
thrice." The Lord looked upon Peter, and, O, what a look it 
must have been! O, that we might fathom its depth. Must 
not the fallen disciple now be reminded of his boast, and be 
brought to an utter distrust of his own strength? Must the 
Lord not bid him to flee, lest he fall as low as Judas? Thus, 
touchingly Jesus must preach to Peter: "Because of thy 
proud boast, I became dumb as a lamb; because of thy denial 
of me, I now acknowledge myself as Lord; and in this thy 
silence, I speak to thee, and lay down my life for thee, that 
thou mayest be lifted up." Behold, brethren, today the Lord 
looketh also upon us with a most benignant and merciful look. 
Can we withstand those eyes? O, may we never refuse to have 
him look upon us. By means of that look he pleads with us 
by day and by night: "Come unto me, and I will give you rest." 
Therefore, 

Come, ye weary sinners, come, 

All who feel your heavy load; 
Jesus calls his wanderers home: 

Hasten to your pardoning God." 

And a word to the catechumens, who will soon come to 



47 

the confessional for the first time. Let the Savior by his be- 
nignant look ever search your souls. And to those who will 
come to the Lord's Table during Holy Week, let me say: Come 
with hearts broken by your Savior's look. 

Verses 61, 62. "And Peter remembered the word of the 
Lord, how that he said unto him, Before the cock crow this 
day thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept 
bitterly." Pathetic indeed is this picture of Peter weeping. 
He can endure it no longer before the fire in the court of the 
palace. With his face hidden in his mantle, to hide the un- 
controllable flow of tears, he hastens out to his own desolate 
and lonesome chamber. The bitter tears, which for so long 
had not wet the furrowed cheeks of the man, cannot now be 
restrained; they flow on and on during that whole terrible day. 
Such tears, as those of Peter, tears of hearty repentance, and 
not merely of sentimental emotion, you should weep when you 
hear the passion story. Nor need you be ashamed of them. 
Or, if the eye remains dry, let the heart be wet with your 
penitential sorrow. Such tears David shed, when Nathan the 
prophet reminded him of his dual sin, and he confessed with 
anguish: 'Against thee only have I sinned, and done this 
evil in thy sight." That he could so forget God is the wound 
in David's heart. That he had denied his loving Savior is the 
bitterness of Peter's soul. Behold here that "godly sorrow," 
working repentance unto salvation, a repentance which brings 
no regret. This sorrow so moved Peter that he is not again 
seen among the disciples until Easter morning. More- 
over, its fruits are made permanent by the thrice repeated 
question: "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?" Three 
times his pride had led him to deny the Lord, therefore, to 
be restored, he must be humbled three times. But after that 
his heart was fixed, for it was Peter who first preached Christ 
and him crucified on Pentecost. After his conversion, Peter, 



48 

like a true rock, was unwavering in confession, going joy- 
fully to prison and bearing faithful witness to Jesus. He 
pressed on as far as the Euphrates to preach the Gospel, 
and died upon a cross at Rome, * and thus with his blood 
sealed his testimony to Jesus. Then only did he become that 
Rock upon which the Lord would build his Church. "It is a 
good thing for the heart to be established by grace." "Blessed 
are they that mourn." Wherefore, beloved, let your hearts 
be established by repentance and faith. Henceforth joyfully 
confess your Lord and Savior by a faithful use of the means 
of grace, Word and Sacrament. 

When the risen Savior first talked to Peter after the de- 
nial, he did not call him "Simon Peter," but "Simon, son of 
Jonas," because he had not only denied the Lord but proved 
untrue to his God-given name. Thus, in our baptism, the 
Lord has also given us a Christian name, that we might be 
continually reminded of our covenant privileges. But how 
often have we heard our Christian names without at all being 
reminded of our covenant with God? How often have we 
denied Christ? O, so many have long failed to confess him. 
and have neglected Word and Sacrament. And, if he should 
speak to them, as he did to Peter, he could not call them 
N. N., but only N. 

"It is a good thing for the heart to be established by 
grace." Let us then continually acknowledge the Savior by 
a faithful use of the means of grace, and of prayer. Let our 
homes be turned into temples of God, and our children brought 
up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Let us today 
bid farewell to every compromise with the world, and by word 
and deed show our sincerity in the faith. "It is a good thing 
for the heart to be established by grace." 



(*This is a Romish tradition. Tr.) 



49 

"I will leave my Jesus never, 

On the cross for me he died; 
Love shall draw me to him ever 

At his feet I will abide. 
Of my life the Light forever, 

I will leave my Jesus never. 

Not the earth with all its treasure 
Could content this soul of mine; 

Not alone for heavenly pleasure 
Doth my thirsty spirit pine; 

For its Savior yearning ever: 
I will leave my Jesus never." 

F. C. L. 



V. 

The Ways of Judas. 

By 
Lie. theol. 

G. Leonhardi. 

t Pastor at Zschaitz. 



THE THIIiD WEEK IN LENT. 

Matthew 27, 1 — 5. 
When the morning was come, all the chief priests and 
elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to 
death: And when they had bound him, they led him away, and 
delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor. Then Judas, 
which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, 
repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver 
to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I 
have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that 
to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver 
in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. 



Our text tonight paints for us the ghastly picture of a 
storm-tossed soul. The ruin in faithless repentance of Judas, 
the traitor, teaches whither the false penitence of the ungodly 
ever must lead. Out of the sorrow of the world into death: 
out of despondency and perplexity into the depth of suicidal 
despair. 

Could there be found a darker counter-part to the cross, 
the tree of Calvary, — on which dies world-conquering Love, 
seeking sinners, pleading for souls, opening the gate of para- 



51 

dise for a dying malefactor, — than the dead, leafless tree above 
the precipice of Gehenna, on which Judas, the traitor, hangs 
himself? 

Shall we not, must we not, with fear and trembling, con- 
sider the ways which led to such a gruesome end? 

THE WAYS OF JUDAS, AN EARNEST LESSON OF WARN- 
ING FOR THE FAITHLESS CHILDREN OF OUR DAY. 

Let this be the theme of our Lenten thoughts tonight. 
These are: 

1) Ways of worldliness, surrendering Christ for the 
earth. 

2) Ways of false penitence, which strives to ex- 
tricate from the consequences of sin. 

3) Ways of faithless despair, ending in suicide. 



We meet Jesus on his way to the judgment-bar of Pi- 
late. The rulers of the Jews have pronounced over him the 
death-sentence. The confirmation of their verdict on the 
part of the governor is the next requirement. Judas is stand- 
ing by the way. He sees them lead away Jesus, in bonds. 
He hears that He has been condemned to death. Repentance 
seizes him. But it is not the "repentance which needeth not 
to be repented of;" he is not terrified at his deed; he is only 
perplexed and alarmed over its consequences. He beholds the 
bloody harvest, for which his treason had furnished the dead- 
ly seed. The blood money burns in his hands, the price 
for which he had betrayed his Lord and Master, and brought 
him to the death of the cross. 



52 

Behold, then, whither leads worldliness, which surren- 
ders Christ for earthly things. It is to this day the Judas- 
mind, — the desire for low gain, the spirit of wretched avarice 
anl love of money, — which commits treason against the high- 
est and holiest: the truth of God, the love, faith and trust 
of man. It has its beginning in excessive care for earthly 
things; it proceeds in faithlessness towards God and fellowmen; 
it ends in the surrender of the highest good, one's own soul. 
Does not every-day experience show examples by the thousand 
that attest to the truth of Scripture: "They that will be rich 
fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and 
hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition." 
The get-rich-quick scheme is a manner of gaining posses- 
sions alien to God's appointed way, the way of honest labor and 
modest frugality. The passion to gain money at any price, 
even by the help of Satan, in spite of God's word and will, 
— this is the chief disease of our times. It is a devastating 
epidemic, which in a thousand forms rages in city and in 
country. Here this epidemic defrauds the poor working-man 
of his hard-earned wages, and lets his family starve in in- 
digence. There it robs the employer of his time, supplies, 
fields and fruits. Here it incites the inconsiderate merchant 
to false wares and weight, to fraudulent bankruptcy, and 
draws thousands to perdition in the fury of speculation. There 
it robs God of his honor on the Lord's day and sacrifices the 
consolation of faith, the peace of a good conscience, the pur- 
ity of the body, the reputation of a good name and all for the 
small price of the wages of sin — a few pieces of silver. And 
yet, there is no greater, no more ruinous loss, than the loss 
of one's soul, the loss of better convictions, the loss of our 
eternal portion. There is no more fearful exchange, than to 
give one's soul for the price of the world, sin and death, earti- 
ly gain and enjoyment. "What is a man profited," the Sav- 



53 

iour says with a pitiful glance upon Judas, "if he gain the 
whole world and lose his soul? Or, what can a man give in 
exchange for his soul?" 

II. 

Judas thought to give something in exchange for his 
soul. He brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the 
chief priests and elders, saying, "I have sinned in that I have 
betrayed innocent blood." Yet the world, the cold and heart- 
less world, has no mercy, no appreciation of such a confession 
of guilt. The reply of partners in sin is at all times the same: 
"What is that to us? see thou to that." 

He who with his repentance and confession goes no fur- 
ther than to the world, to the companions of and helpers in 
his sin, cannot hope for consolation or mercy. The world has 
but scorn and scoff, or at best, false advice and false consola- 
tion for the repenting sinner. The deceived in vanity and 
sin may forever implore the deceiver, she may upon her knees 
bring the price of sin and with tears in her eyes, make the 
beseeching cry, "Return to me my faith, my peace, my honor!" 
There will be but the same cold and heartless reply: What 
is that to me, see thou to it. That man is forsaken and ut- 
terly lost, who, terrified at the consequences of sin, strives 
to save himself, who flees to man instead of running into the 
open arms of his gracious Saviour and Redeemer. For no 
man can by any means redeem or heal his brother. Lost and 
forsaken is he, who in false repentance seeks escape from sin's 
results rather than from the bond of sin itself. Casting away 
the vain prize of sin, you do not throw away sin's heavy 
guilt. Vain endeavor, poor, blind Judas! There is One' 
only who can heal the deep wounds of the soul, who can re- 
deem and save from nin; it is the same One, who looked upon 
Peter with such a divine look of holy love and pity, that after 



54 

his denial "he went out and wept bitterly;" it is the same 
One who raised the penitent Magdalene out of the dust with 
the work of pardon and consolation: "Thy sins be forgiven 
thee, depart in peace." 

Be ye mindful of this, ye broken and contrite hearts, ye 
forsaken and lonely ones, dismissed by the heartless world, 
into the selfmerited misery and trial of sin. Do not seek help 
where none is to be found. Do not stun the signs of your 
poor souls by entangling yourself still more with the cares of 
this world. You cannot cover sin with sin, nor extinguish 
fire by pouring oil on it. "Seek ye the Lord, while He is ner r; 
Call upon Him while He is yet near." "With the Lord there 
is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption." Even Judas 
might have found grace, if he had repented and confessed be- 
fore the Lord, instead of before the Jews. 

And you, who bear within you a spark of the Spirit, a 
spark of the love of Christ, you, who see that mercy towards 
sinners, the miserable and lost, is a quality and trait of godli- 
ness, do not pass coldly and indifferently the misery of the 
world. Help to direct the erring on the right path, to restore 
the fallen in the spirit of meekness. Show them, lead them 
to the fountain of grace and truth, of salvation and life, even 
to Christ Jesus; and remember, "he who converteth a sinner 
from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death." 
O, if all Christians would turn their hands to the work 
of home missions, how many a soul might be saved 
from the stream of bodily and spiritual perdition. How many 
a soul might be turned from the way of Judas, the way whose 
end is faithless, suicidal despair, to find the Lord of life and 
salvation! 

III. 

For note the fearful end of Judas. Seeing himself de- 



55 

spised and rejected by his companions in sin, "he cast down 
the pieces of silver in the' temple and went and hanged him- 
self." Miserable end, in night and woe. Truly an illustration 
of the word, "The sorrow of the world worketh death." 

A man who has no consolation beyond that which the 
world affords, when the world pushes him aside, must des- 
pair. In the shipwreck of faith a man must drown in the 
waves of anxiety and despair if no help is offered. A brilliant 
author has called unbelief the suicide of the soul, and indeed, 
it is this, inasmuch as it renders the world godless, robs life 
of its inner, eternal content, leaves the soul without consola- 
tion or hope, and suffocates the breath of spiritual life, 
prayer to God. Suicide in mental aberation, even if inter- 
woven with the secret threads of human guilt and sin, de- 
serves our pity. Suicide, however, resulting from frivolity, — 
when a man has grown weary of the lust and cares of the 
world, and throws away his life like a husk or an empty shell, 
instead of renewing it in the strength of the Holy Ghost, — ■ 
is the mark of modern heathenism. It reminds us of the word 
of the Lord, that unbelief is the greatest of all sins. For if 
a man does not fear God, how shall he respect men? He who 
does not consider his own life, what care can he feel for the 
life and welfare of others? It is the nihilism of unbelief, that 
is the doctrine of the great nothingness, by which every thing 
high and noble is destroyed, which turns its weapons, whether 
speech or sword or pen, not only against those in high rank, 
but as well against fellowmen, wife and innocent children, mur- 
dering and coldbloodedly dragging with him everything over 
the precipice of despair into eternal death. 

These are the ways of Judas, which proceed from the sur- 
render of these highest and holiest possessions, the truth and 
love of God in Christ, for the gain of earthly enjoyment, and 
which through false sorrow end in the abyss of despair. 



56 

Therefore, beloved in Christ, see to it that none of you 
have a wicked and unbelieving heart, which would depart from 
the living God and be hardened into the deception of sin. 
But having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of 
Jesus, shed for the remission of our sins, let us draw near 
with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts 
sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with 
pure water, and let us hold fast the profession of our faith, 
without wavering; for He is faithful that calleth; and let 
us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good 
works; not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, 
as the manner of some is; for if we sin wilfully after that we 
have received the knowledge of truth, there remaineth no more 
sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment 
and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. For 
it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 
Luther prays and we unite with him: 

Our sins, o Lord, our God, 

Into fear of hell must drive. 

Whither shall we flee for aid 

That we save our wretched life? 

Unto Thee, o Christ, our Rod! 

Thou hast shed Thy blood so pure, 

Hast atoned that we endure. 

Holy Father, our God, our Lord of Sabaoth. 

From our faith, o loving Saviour 

Never let us fall or waver. Amen. 

R. N. 



VI. 

The Choice Between Christ and Barabbas. 

By 

Dr. M. Frommel, 

Superintendent in Celle. 



THE FOURTH WEEK IN LENT. 

Text: John 18: 38 — 40. 
"And when he had said this, he went out again unto the 
Jews, and saith unto them, I find no crime in him. But ye have 
a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover: 
will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews? 
They cried out therefore again, saying, Not this Man, but Ba- 
rabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber." 



The passion story is the incomparable part of history. 
From year to year it is told in the churches and schools of 
Christendom, and we have known it from our youth up, yet it 
constantly reveals new depths, and teaches fresh lessons for 
tbe individual and the community, both with respect to a fana- 
tical ecclesiasticism, as represented in Caiaphas, and a neutral 
state-craft with regard to Christ, as shown in Pilate. Nor could 
it well be otherwise. The Savior himself, who is the blessed 
subject of this story, is the neverfailing Source of wisdom and 
light, continually refreshing our spirits. In the passion every- 
thing combined to humiliate him, but in the midst of it he 
only became more majestic. The deeper his enemies sought to 
bury him in oblivion, the higher he rose in the esteem of the 
world and in the affections of his own. In his sacrificial pa- 



58 

tience, in his royal silence, in his deepest humiliation, he be- 
came crowned with a glory and an honor which, from year to 
year, and from generation to generation, win him the love and 
devotion of the humble and broken hearted. Prom this incom- 
parable history, let us today take a small part as the basis for 
our meditation — a part in which light and darkness are most 
vividly contrasted. Our text prompts us to consider 

THE CHOICE BETWEEN CHRIST AND BARABBAS. 

1. Israel's choice. 

2. Your choice. 

3. God's choice. 



Our text leads us into the very midst of the Lord's civil 
trial, before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. The highest 
authority according to Roman law had just declared before ail 
the people that Jesus was innocent, that neither his accusers 
had proved anything against him, nor could the judge find him 
guilty of a crime. It would, therefore, have been Pilate's duty 
to have let Jesus go, and to have protected him against his 
enemies. But, instead of that, he began to temporize, and 
would not alone decide the matter at issue. Though he knew 
that for envy the" chief-priests had delivered Jesus, though he 
was convinced of Christ's innocence, though he had openly pro- 
nounced the sentence: "I find no crime in him," in spite of all 
these things Pilate undertook to play a neutral role. Refusing 
to come out on the Lord's side, when the charges against him 
had not been proven, he still wanted to be impartial as between 
the accusers and the Accused, as between Christ and his deadly 
enemies. Thus, he put himself on the down grade, on which 
his speed accelerated at every step, with no hope of ever stop- 



59 

ping until he became the open enemy of Christ, and his judicial 
murderer. 

Beloved, there is no neutral ground as between light and 
darkness. In the realm of the spiritual Jesus Christ is the line 
of demarcation, as he said: "He that is not with me is against 
me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth." Whoever 
wants to be impartial, and to regard Christ and Christianity as 
one side, and his enemies as the other, has already taken sides 
against Christ; he has set down divine truth as a mere human 
opinion which may be variously held and interpreted. Such a 
man, without convictions of his own, and swayed by the major- 
ity, is to be reckoned among Christ's bitterest foes. Christ is 
the way, the truth and the life; his antithesis is the life and 
death. Either, or— either Christ leads you into the truth, and 
is the way of your life in time and eternity, or you reject his 
guidance, do not come out on his side, and thus remain without 
a way unto life, to be sunk, confused and lost, into the abyss 
of the darkness of death. Verily, this desire to remain neutral 
with respect to Christ is the cancer of our times. It is thought 
that this attitude of impartiality displays great depth of charac- 
ter and much wisdom. But because of it, there is so little 
whole-souled confession of Christ and so much wavering halt- 
ing in the things that pertain to life. Men are convinced of the 
exalted character of Christ, of the truth of Christianity, of the 
pitiableness of his enemies, and yet they are ashamed openly 
to identify themselves with it, and joyfully to confess Christ, 
and accept the blessings of the Church. But woe unto them 
that halt. Woe unto them that want to be neutral with Christ. 
"Whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words before this 
adulterous generation, of him will I also be ashamed before 
my Father who is in heaven," saith the Lord. Wherefore, do 
not forget that great consequences depend upon your decision. 



60 

You will build your character either into the light or into 
darkness. 

Because Pilate wanted to play a neutral role, he was com- 
pelled to abdicate his office and to let others decide what should 
be done with Jesus — he appealed to the people. It occurred to 
him, that an excellent way out of his quandary would be to 
avail himself of a Jewish custom which required that at the 
passover some prisoner should be given his liberty. He deter- 
mined, therefore, to submit the question of Christ's release to 
a popular vote; not he, but the people, are to determine the 
tate of Jesus. 

We have here one of the earliest examples of popular 
suffrage, and the result fails to commend the practice. ' * * 
What concern was it to that Jewish rabble, by courtesy called 
"the people," as to what became of either Jesus or Barabbas? 
If one had been asked at night: Why did you prefer the insur- 
rectionist and the murderer? his answer would doubtless have 
been: Because the majority did. But why did the majority 
vote as it did in this case, as in every other? Because the lead- 
ers wanted it so; the chief-priests controlled the vote. Thus, 
the verdict of the people is swayed. In the wilderness they 
wanted to make Jesus a king; in the judgment hall they asked 
that he be crucified. 

But Pilate imagined that he had managed the affair quite 
adroitly by letting the people decide as between two such oppo- 
site characters. On the one hand stood Barabbas, an insurrec- 
tionist; on the other Christ, so rigidly obedient to the princi- 
ple: "And unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's;" Barab- 
bas, a murderer; Christ, the Savior, who had done so much 
good, healed so many sick, and raised some of their dead. One 
would imagine that the choice ought not to be difficult as be- 
tween the sinister character of Barabbas and the benevolent 
life of Jesus. But they all cried out, saying: "Not this Man, 



. 61 

but Barabbas.' Thus, Barabbas received every vote; Christ 
not one. It remains the perpetual shame of mankind that this 
deed was not only possible, but that it was actually done. O, 
let us be warned by it. Let us not depend on our benevolent 
wills to check crime; for a humanity, capable of that deed in 
Pilate's judgment hall, is capable of the blackest crimes. It 
was indeed an eventful hour, when Israel, as represented by its 
priests and rabble, rejected their King, and chose Barabbas 
with the proud boast: "His blood be upon us, and upon our 
children." And his blood did come upon them in the terrible 
destruction of Jerusalem, a disaster unparalleled in the history 
of the world; and since that day Israel is a wanderer on the 
earth, without a country and without a temple, as so ably pic- 
tured in Ahaseurus, the Wandering Jew. But, what is the sit- 
uation in our country? Suppose that this same question should 
be submitted to a popular vote. "Would not thousands and 
hundreds of thousands give their votes to the revolutionists, 
whose cry would be: Release unto us Barabbas? "But Barab- 
bas was an insurrectionist and a murderer." It is true, a cer- 
tain number would still say: "Thine we are, O Jesus, and we 
will walk with thee, Thou Son of the Highest." But the pro- 
portion of those making this confession would be small, and 
their voices would scarce be audible above the uproar of the 
multitude. O, my country, my country, should it ever come to 
this, that thou wouldest reject thy Jesus, a fate no less terrible 
than that which overtook Israel would be thine: his blood 
would be upon thee and upon thy children. 

In the midst of their wild uproar Jesus opened not his 
mouth, suffering in silence. No sound moved his holy lips, 
but he endured patiently the insult of Pilate, offered in that 
implied proffer of mercy as against the verdict of that tribunal 
to which, in his weakness, he had appealed. Only to the 
guilty can clemency be shown. Is Christ not guilty, as Pilate 



62 

had declared, how was it possible for him to show mercy? Then 
it was Christ's right to be set free. But Christ permitted him- 
self to be contrasted with Barabbas, to be rejected by the 
people. And let us never forget that he who is tnere on trial 
is the Holy One in Israel, the only perfect Man, the everlasting 
Son of the Father, the Creator of heaven and earth. O, what 
thoughts may well have stirred his heart, when he heard the 
people's verdict: "Not this Man, but Barabbas." Thus, they 
showed that, in their estimation, the insurrectionist and mur- 
derer was worthier than the Son of obedience — than the incar- 
nate Love of God. Jesus was silent, but his mute, pale Form 
might be taken to say: What have I done to you, my people; 
how have I injured you? Answer me. But Jesus was silent. 
Here the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled: "He was despised 
and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with 
grief: and as one from whom men hide their faces he was 
despised; and we esteemed him not." That Barabbas should 
be preferred instead of Jesus, that the Holy One should be cru- 
cified between two thieves, shows how little the Jews esteemed 
him. They regarded him as more dangerous to the common 
weal of State and Church than two murderers. Their outrage 
upon him breaks his heart. Barabbas chosen, Jesus rejected; 
Barabbas held worthy, Jesus intolerable in the eyes of the peo- 
ple; Barabbas released, Jesus led away to be crucified — truly, 
this is the climax of the passion and the depth of woe for the 
ever blessed Lord Jesus. 



II. 



You have heard what choice Israel made, now inquire into 
yours. Condemn Israel not, until you have searched your own 
heart. Or, do you not know that you are required again and 
again to choose as between Christ and Barabbas? In every 
temptation which assails you, the necessity to choose is thrust 



63 

upon you. When you consent to sin, you release Barabbas, 
the insurrectionist and rebel against God's law, and the mur- 
derer of your soul. With every deliberate sin, you reject 
Jesus, and show that you do not want this Man to reign" over 
you. When you -are enticed by lust, a contest begins, a choice 
must be made: "Whom shall I release unto you?" — and your 
conscience will tell you that you have scores of times already 
cried: "Not this Man, but Barabbas." But how strange: 
Barabbas is so loathsome, and Jesus so lovely. Righteousness 
is a virtue, and sin is a shame; covetousness is despicable, and 
to give is more blessed than to receive. Drunkenness is beast- 
ly, yea, it degrades man beneath the brute. Voluptousness is 
despicable, and chastity a shining jewel. Pride, anger and envy 
are hateful, and humility, meekness and love without condem- 
nation. But alas, alas. The Lord has told us: "And this is 
the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men 
loved darkness rather than the light; for their works were 
evil." If, therefore, we examine ourselves, Israel's choice will 
declare how we need to repent of our own; and, if we see our- 
selves in the Word, as in a glass, there will be nothing left for 
us but to smite our breasts, and to say: 

"Who is life in life to me? 
Who the death of death will be? 
Who will place me on his right 
With the countless hosts of light? 
Jesus Christ, the Crucified." 



-III. 



This is the last part of the choice which was made in the 
palace of Pilate. In the whole transaction only one man found 
joy: Barabbas. He obtained his liberty only in the condemna- 
tion of Jesus, otherwise the cross would have been his fate. 



64 

But there was found for him a Savior, who suffered in his 
stead. 

Taking this view, the whole proceeding becomes an illus- 
tration of the choice and election of God. God looked upon the 
scene from his exalted throne, and, behold, there stood Barab- 
bas — Adam and all his generations: mankind, which by sin was 
sold into the bondage of sin — Barabbas, we are Barabbas, the 
insurrectionists and rebels,— and over against this fallen hu- 
manity stood Jesus, the only Begotten of the Father, in whom 
he is well-pleased. And, lo, Jesus gave himself unto death, 
that we might be free. The Father releases Barabbas, but 
Jesus, the beloved Son, is crucified. "Him who knew no sin, 
he made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the 
righteousness of God in him." 

"Wherefore, God commendeth his love toward us, in that, 
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Thus, the nar- 
rative of the choice as between Christ and Barabbas presents 
to us a picture of the great work of redemption and of the 
vicarious sufferings of Jesus Christ. Did I say, A picture? It 
is more: it is the literal essence of the whole transaction. If 
it were not, surely God would have bowed the heavens, and 
come down to put a stop to that terrible travesty on justice. 
Jesus, the Lamb of God, in his vicarious sufferings, often let 
glorious rays of his divinity fall upon mankind, but here he 
veiled them all to make possible the release of Barabbas, and 
the rejection of himself. Therefore, too, he was able to maintain 
such majestic silence and to suffer so patiently, for he knew 
that he was doing it all in obedience to the Father's will, who 
also gave him the bitter cup to drink; yes, he did it because of 
his own great love for the world which he had come to redeem. 
Here is the very kernel of the text: Barabbas — you are he, 
and I am he, insurrectionists against God and his holy will; 



65 

Jesus obedient unto death, even the death of the cross: in your 
stead, in my stead. 

Beloved, whoever takes this view of the matter, and re- 
pents of his sin, and has his Barabbas nature changed, and be- 
lieves in Christ, the Substitute and Surety for his soul, he will 
learn to choose Christ for time and eternity, as his One and All, 
as "the one thing needful," as "that good part," which Mary 
chose, which shall not be taken from him; he will be brave 
enough under all circumstances to stand boldly on the Lord's 
side, and to say with Paul: "I count all things but loss and 
refuse that I may win the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, 
and be found in him;" he will no longer want to occupy middle 
ground and waver like Pilate, but whether the priests cry or 
the mob howl, he will lift his voice high above the din, and 
give his vote: Not Barabbas, but Jesus the Savior, whose I am 
and whom I serve. 

Blessed is he who makes this choice. Amen. 

F. C. L. 



VII. 



ECCE HOMO: Behold the Man! 

By 

F. Dransfeld. 

Pastor at Coepenick. 



THE FIFTH WEEK IN LENT. 

Text: John 19, 5. 
Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and 
the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man! 



If anyone should ask me which of all the paintings I have 
seen has made the deepest impression on my soul and has 
spoken the most eloquently to my inner life, I would without 
a moment's hesitation reply, Reni's Ecce Homo. One has to 
stand before this beautiful painting for some time in order that 
its beauty may work on him. You never will forget the look 
of those eyes, which, as it were, burn into your soul. How 
wonderfully are the noblest humanity and the sublimest Divin- 
ity combined on this picture! How touching the trace of pain 
on the countenance of the Divine Sufferer! It was this picture 
which, seen in cheap reprint in a plain peasant's home, so 
touched Count Zinzendorf on his wanderings through the coun- 
try, that from that moment he became one devoted to the 
"Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." Ecce Homo! 
This I did for thee, what hast thou done for Me? 

Do you wish to see the proto-type of this picture? Look 
to our text. The gate of Pilate's judgment hall swings open; 



67 

Jesus advances; Jesus, adorned with a crown of thorns, clad 
in purple. Pilate himself becomes the passion preacher/ he 
sets the title to the living picture: ECCE HOMO!, that is, 
Behold the Man! 

We find a fourfold meaning in this expression. It is a 
word — 

1) of deepest contempt; 

2) of intense confusion; 

3) of high admiration; 

4) of faithful adoration. 



I. 



A word of deepest contempt. We can see, methinks, the 
satirical curl around the lips of the Roman governor, as he 
speaks these words. It may appear as if he desired to call 
forth the pity of the people; but that cannot be, since he has 
no pity himself. Jesus is a picture of disgrace and suffering. 
A picture of shame. He stands, indeed, adorned as a king. 
He wears a crown, but it does not gleam with the lustre of 
jewels and pearls, as the crowns of worldly rulers do. It was 
grown for him on the land full of thorns and thistles. 

O Sacred Head, now wounded, 

With grief and shame weighed down, 

Now scornfully surrounded 
With thorns, thy only crown. 

He wears the purple, but not as king Herod in the com- 
pany of the great ones of his kingdom, not even as the rich 
man in the house of earthly abundance. It is in an old sol- 
dier's cloak, worn and torn, that He is attired. And we step 



68 

up to the throne of the Father, with the purple in our hands: 
Behold, whether this be thy Son's gown? And this self-same 
form of torture, this picture of misery and shame, should be 
destined to lift the Roman empire off its hinges? Impossible! 
you exclaim. Ah, beloved, we know that He not only moved 
the Roman empire, not only all the kingdoms of the earth, 
but heaven and earth has He moved. "He upholdeth all 
things with the word of His power." And yet He is a picture 
of suffering. Down from his forehead drops of blood are 
trickling, where the thorns have torn his flesh. Thou noble 
countenance, the terror and fear of the ungodly at the judgment 
to come, now spit upon! His back and face show the bloody 
marks of the lash, and of the rude fists of the soldiers. His eye 
filled with sadness, glances over the multitude surrounding the 
steps of the judgment hall, clamoring in favor of Barabbas, the 
thief. He hears them calling down the guilt of his blood upon 
their children. His friends have left him. He must tread the 
winepress alone. 

This is the course of life. He who is in evil plight needs 
not to search for scorn. He stands despised in the eyes of 
the world. As long as the sun of happiness is shining, as 
long as we enjoy strength and health, we are surrounded and 
flattered by any number of friends. But let trials break in 
upon us, and we will have the contempt and scorn of the heart- 
less world to endure. Thus Jesus was despised, so that even 
men hid their faces before him. Behold the Man! To this 
day Jesus stands in the world despised and rejected. Behold 
the Man! thus we hear a voice from the lowest of the people, 
those among whom the spirit of antichrist makes fists at the 
Holy One and His church; who, if they only could, would 
crucify him anew. Behold the Man! Thus we hear it among 
the high in rank also, at their extravagant feasts. In the 
company of the drunken winebibbers he is derided, the man 



69 

of sorrows, in words of deepest contempt and frivolity and 
scorn. To the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks, 
foolishness. Behold the Man. 



II. 



Upon closer consideration of this word of Pilate we recog- 
nize in it an expression of intense confusion. It is a confus- 
ing feeling to see a man suffering innocently. Behold the Man! 
What has he done? "Why does he have to suffer? What is 
his guilt? What are his crimes? Would you know what he 
has done? Ask the lepers who have been cleansed or the 
blind who now can see, the dead who have come back to life; 
they will tell you what he has done. Call the poor, who have 
received the consolation of his gospel; call the weary and heavy 
laden who have found rest; call the lost sheep that were found 
by him, — they will tell you what he has done. Who among 
you can accuse him of one sin? Not Caiaphas, not Pilate, 
not Herod, not the thief on the cross, not the centurion, not 
unbelief, not criticism, not anarchy. No one, on earth or in 
heaven. Says St. Paul: "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things 
are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are 
just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are love- 
ly, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any vir- 
tue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." Do 
not these words present to us a picture of Jesus Christ? "All 
splendor of the Cherubim and holiness of Seraphim, compared 
with him is darkness sheer." He suffered innocently! How 
confusing. And still more does it confuse us to see someone 
suffer innocently in our stead. Look at the picture closely. 
It is the picture which your mirror shows you, you see your- 
self in it. Your sin he has borne; the sorrow that should 
plague you rests on him; the punishment that by rights you 
should suffer, he endures. It is for me He stands there, the 



70 

atoning one, bound hands and feet. Behold the Man! A pic- 
ture of intense confusion. 



III. 



Never! And therefore not without the highest admiration. 
He is the most beautiful among the children of men. It is the 
task of art to represent the beautiful. What is the most 
beautiful thing in the world? The image of Jesus Christ. 
Art, therefore, always returns to him and finds in him the one 
great subject of its most perfect work. In the world the con- 
ceptions of beauty are diverse and one-sided. W e can see 
only what is before our eyes. The world admires a beautiful 
face. But there are beauties which the world does not ap- 
preciate. There is a beauty of suffering. We often find it 
verified in the case of sick persons, who otherwise have noth- 
ing attractive about them; the longer they bear their cross in 
patience, the more their faces become beautified by the ex- 
pression of suffering. "Thro suffering the Master stamps his 
image in the heart." And this image is mirrored in the face. 
It seems as if the divine sculptor was putting his modeling- 
hand to the form of a man most especially in the time of 
suffering. We now understand why Zinzendorf, contemplat- 
ing the suffering Saviour, said: "Every new day Thou an- 
pearest more beautiful to my eyes." A face is beautiful when 
through its eyes gleams the lustre of a pure soul, or when 
through the window of the eye you can look into the sunlit 
closet of a peaceful heart, unmoved by the storms of passion. 
The eye is the light of the body and the mirror of the soul. 
What a soul was mirrored in Christ's eye! A face is beauti- 
ful, furthermore, when it testifies to meekness, humility and 
patience! And who was equal to Jesus in this respect, as 
beautiful as He? "He did not chide, when He was chided, 
He did not threaten when He suffered, but put it into the hands 



71 

of Him who judgeth in righteousness." And: how does love, 
the greatest among Christian virtues, crown with shining glory 
the children of men, even on earth! Jesus is Love eternal. 
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his 
life for his friends!" "Having loved his own, He loved them 
unto the end." Here are the open arms of Love, the love of 
Him who looks in favor on the repenting sinner. We stand 
before him in highest admiration. His very beauty lies in 
this, that for our sakes He made himself of no reputation. 
Behold the Man! 

IV. 

Great surprise is caused in Israel, when the high form of 
Saul was seen among the prophets. "Has Saul gone among 
the prophets?" Balaam, the seer, was sent for and intended 
to curse Israel, but, alas, against his own will he becomes 
a prophet of blessing. Caiaphas, the highpriest, prophesied 
perdition upon Jesus, but in this very prophecy he pronounces 
blessing. "The wind bloweth where it listeth." There is an 
unconscious prophetical office, a prophetical office against the 
will of the one prophesying. Pilate does not realize that with 
his exclamation he becomes a prophet, that his word lets us 
look down into the depths of Deity. Behold the Man! Hard- 
ly a man any more, and yet a man indeed! The most perfect 
man, and more than a man, at once man and God, God-man, 
"true man, born of the Virgin Mary, and also true God, begot- 
ten of the Father from eternity." It is He, in whom God 
and man are united, in whom all perfect fullness appears. 
"For in him dwelleth the fullness of the God-head bodily." 
We fall prostrate at his feet; we adore him: "My Lord and 
my God." Some time He will come again in the clouds of 
heaven. His sign, perhaps the sign of the cross. But not 
in its dark surroundings as on Calvary, but transfigured by 



the morning-glory of eternity, will it announce his second 
coming into the world. "Then shall they look on Him whom 
they have pierced." "From the rising of the sun, even unto 
the going down of the same,," will it sound over the whole 
world, from the lips of trembling foes, now overcome, as 
well as out of the hearts of joyful disciples who have turned 
upwards their eyes in faithful adoration. In the tongues of 
men and of angels will it sound: Ecce Homo! Behold the 
Man! 

We bow before him in faith and sing: 

O Sacred Head now wounded 
With grief and shame weighed down, 
Now scornfully surrounded 
With thorns thy only crown! 

Sacred Head what glory, 
What bliss, till now, was Thine. 
Yet though despised and gory, 

1 joy to call Thee mine! Amen. 

R. N. 



vni. 



The Two Malefactors a Mirror of Humanity. 



By 

O. Brennekam. 

Pastor at Moehringen. 



THE SIXTH WEEK IN LENT. 

Text: Luke 2 3, 39 — 43. 
And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on 
him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the 
other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, 
seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed 
justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this 
man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, 
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus 
said unto him, Verily, I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be 
with me in paradise. 



O day of gloom and sadness 
As midnight's hour dark 
O day of love's warm brightness 
As never sun could mark. 

His heart filled with anxiety, the father goes out to seek 
the lost son; his heart is breaking on account of the guilt 
and misery of the child. He does not rest, through heat or 
cold, pain or danger of death, until his child is found and 
taken by the hand back to the peace of the parent's home. — 
Mother's heart is breaking on account of the disgrace into 
which the world has drawn her daughter; she feels it more 



intensely than the daughter herself. She follows her steps; 
she does not shrink from the mire which has soiled her gar- 
ment, neither from the moral mire into which she must de- 
scend. Be she ever so low, love allows no rest, no peace. 
Onward, onward, lower and lower, until her child is found. 
And when she has found her, whatever and wherever she may 
be, she plucks her out of her surroundings, draws her to her 
heart in burning love, and takes her home to begin the task 
of blessing, of cleansing her child from the mire. First to 
save, — then to cleanse. This is the method of Christ! Never 
to be forgotten is the mother's cry of joy at the finding of her 
daughter after years of separation, the cry of joy at her rescue 
from disgrace. 

Zaleukus, king of the Locri, issued a law against theft. 
The transgressor's eyes were to be pierced with red-hot irons. 
Behold, his own son becomes the first transgressor. Pater- 
nal love and* judicial duty are pitted against each other 
in hard, painful battle. He loves his son beyond comprehen- 
sion, yet esteemes as highly the sanctity of the law. What was 
he to do? Should he remit the punishment, the law would be 
trodden under foot. Yet the thought of piercing the son's 
eyes, sorely grieves the father's heart. Behold the just king 
and tender father devises a way by which justice is done both 
to his love and to the law. He had one of his son's eyes 
pierced, and then he gives one of his own eyes as a ransom 
for the other eye of his son. The effect of the deed of love was 
marvelous. His subjects saw that the law was upheld. In 
their king they saw equally exemplified both Justice and Love. 
And the son as often as he looked into the countenance of 
his father, was reminded of his unspeakable love; and as 
often as he was reminded of his own defect, he shuddered at 
the depth of his crime. 

What are all such noble human deeds but a faint type 



75 

of the divine love which descended to us on Calvary, to cele- 
brate its highest triumphs? 

From the moment in which wretched and foolish man re- 
jects Paradise in unbelief and disobedience, (the two funda- 
mental sins) from this moment the faithful Father in love 
and mercy begins the search for his lost son, in order to win 
him back for Paradise. Beginning with the blood that flowed 
on Mt. Moriah, the blood of the lamb which protected the 
Jewish home against the angel of death; through all the stream 
of blood which in the Old Testament flowed on the sacred 
temple-spot, the spot sanctified by Abraham's sacrifice, God in 
shadows and types points to the hour when He would bring 
the greatest sacrifice of Love, when in the blood 
of His only begotten son, He intended to show how justice 
and love were to be reconciled in the triumph of divine grace. 

Now it is done. The word of prophecy has been fulfilled: 
"He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for 
our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; 
and with his stripes we are healed." 

He may in blessing bow his head to the earth; in parting 
He may exclaim: "It is finished," the work of redemption, it is 
finished. Again the way is open to the Father's heart. It 
is finished! Follow him willingly. 

In deep adoration we stand at the foot of the cross and 
remembering how oblivious so many have been to the Father's 
divine love, we are forced to exclaim: 

My tears in grief are flowing, at Thy death, O Saviour mine. 
Ah, why is it so many forget Thy Love divine? 
'Twas wondrous love that opened the closed gates ajar, 
And yet — 'tis all forgotten, the chords have died afar. 

Are we among those who have forgotten? Are we in earn- 



76 

est with our love and thanksgiving? Can we stand and in 
face of the word prevail? "He is set for the fall and rising 
again of many," so that to one he is a savour of life unto life 
and to another a savour of death unto death. Grave and im- 
portant question! It is a matter of life and death. Grave 
question at a most sacred place. We are standing at the foot 
of the cross; the one innocently slain calls: "All this I did 
for thee, what hast thou done for me?" 

We lift up our eyes. There sounds a word amid the soft 
dripping of blood, amid the weeping of the women, amid the 
groaning of the executed, racked with pain; amid the rude 
scoffing. It is a word filled with poison; — one of death's can- 
didates has uttered it. A wonderful word comes back, sur- 
prising both on account of the place and the lips that utter it. 
Then follows the reply, pressing the seal on that which we 
sing hopefully at the Manger: 

To-day He opens wide the gate 
Of blessed Paradise 
The Cherub does not stand in wait 
Glory to God, Allwise. 

The great work is finished. The one ON the cross has 
finished for those BELOW the cross, the work entrusted to him 
by the father. WILL IT BENEFIT THEM? The reply 
sounds from the cross in phone and antiphone. Inscribe it 
on your heart. The two criminals are the representatives of 
humanity, symbolically their fate is that of all humanity. As 
on the cross they were to the right and left, thus will it be 
on the judgment day, either on the right hand or left. There 
is no middle way. 



77 

AT THE CROSS MEANS AT THE CROSS-ROAD. 
What is the cross to you? 

1) A matter of hatred or scorn? 

2) A call to God? 

3) It must be either — life or death. 
Lord strengthen us, to meditate Thy passion 
To merge into the sea of love, faith's fashion, 

Of love, that moved Thee from sin's dread and vile, 
to reconcile. 

I. 

A murderer at the right, a murderer at the left of the 
Saviour of men, in fulfillment of prophecy: "He was numbered 
among the transgressors." And as the pains overpower the 
one at the .left, as death moves up slowly toward the heart, 
starting from the stiffening limbs, while furious hatred below is 
still heard, as in rudeness it heaps scorn and scoff upon the pic- 
ture of misery upon that central cross, — the criminal's wrath 
also vents itself in impotent taunt: "If Thou be Christ," that 
is, the promised Messiah, for whom Israel is waiting, "Save 
Thyself and us." It was an expression of scoffing doubt di- 
rected at the noble sufferer, who like a lamb opened not his 
mouth before his shearer. Could He really suffer what He is 
suffering, without resistance, if he were what He pretends to 
be? Not satisfied with insolence, he adds to his doubt: "Save 
thyself and us." The murderer who deserves a hundredfold 
the punishment meted out to him, puts himself on a basis with 
him, in whom not even the searching eye of the Roman gover- 
nor had found any guilt, "nothing worthy of death," with him 
who could meet his enemies with the question: "Who among 
you convinceth me of sin?" And what a frame of mind in this 
criminal, in addition to his insolence! In view of a horrible 
death, he has NO thought of the Judge, before whom he must 
soon appear to give account of himself, no penitent remem- 



brance of a life of failure, no terror on account of the blood 
shed by his nefarious hand, blood, which like Abel's, was cry- 
ing unto heaven. For this cause alone he drags down the 
Holy One into his sinful fellowship, that he might free him 
from the sufferings, the just punishment for his sins, that He 
should preserve his miserable life, in order that he might go 
on in sin. Do you not shudder at the demoralization into 
which poor man is liable to sink? 

And is not this murderer, with his villainous hatred and 
poison, a type of the misery slumbering in every human heart? 

Here we pass our days ungrateful in spite of the daily evi- 
dences of the love of God towards us, indifferent towards his 
commands of love, loveless, thoughtless, corrupt in thought, 
word and deed. Alas, how many spend their lives as if there 
were no Father in heaven. Whenever He calls to the com- 
munion of saints, the most paltry pretext suffices to excuse our 
absence. But let pleasure or the dance summon us, and we 
know of no hindrance to keep us away. 

But let sorrow, one of the consequences of sin, in some of 
its manifold forms invade our life. Behold the wretched worm 
of dust and ashes, instead of repenting, instead of crying, 
"Lord, be merciful, forgive my sins," after the manner of the 
murderer on the cross, drawing God down into his sinful fel- 
lowship, as if there were the purest harmony between his Cre- 
ator and himself, as if the tie of love had never been broken 
by thousands of sins. Like that malefactor, he knows but one 
cry: Lord take away my sorrow! God, however, in His un- 
searchable wisdom does not remove earthly suffering, for it 
is sent to purify man in the fiery oven of tribulation, ripen him 
for the eternal garners in the burning heat of summer. But 
instead of recognizing God's holy intentions, we hear the suf- 
ferer rave in poisonous doubt: "There is no God, for He does 



79 

not help me in spite of my prayer." The rebellious heart is 
given over to grim hatred and stubborness: "Is this a God of 
love, who permits such suffering?" Blind to all his past diso- 
bedience and uncleanness, he raises his voice in the miserable 
complaint: "Wherefore have I deserved this?" 

Moral indifference is incapable of understanding the 
drawing love of God. Hatred sets itself against God. Thus 
murderous hatred against the Lord of Love wanders, errs, 
strays over the world, and never realizes that by its very deeds 
it honors the Lord, to whom it denies the honor of love. For 
man feels only hatred toward that which in moral greatness 
meets him to shame him; man will not consent to moral obli- 
gation, although he well feels the justice of its claims; there- 
fore, when punishment claims its right, there we find grim 
hatred in the place of humble submission. Then, as is so often 
the case, we hear: "We hate you, because of the truth on your 
lips." 

You do not see your face in this mirror? Perhaps though 
in the following: "O yes, there must be a God, there must be 
faith; what would become of our world if there were no God, 
no faith?" Thus you say. But you do not wish to recognize 
God's claims on you. You thoughtlessly overlook them. Can 
there be a baser practice than to confess the necessity of a 
Saviour, and yet not follow his voice? For you He hangs on 
the cross, yet you pass by, wagging your head: "What is that 
to me?" Is not this scorn perhaps morally lower than hatred, 
since you do not attain even to an awakening of your con- 
science? The Cross of Christ, what is it to you? Hatred 
and scorn? 

II. 

The other malefactor thus far has not dared to address 
the Lord; in the deep feeling of his guilt, he realizes not only 



80 

that He is in like condemnation, but that as Abraham told 
Dives, a deep gulf is fixed between the murderer and that right- 
eous one, who was being slain for telling the truth. Yet, at 
the vicious word of his fellow his heart revolts. A word of 
reproof, an open confession, and a humble request sound from 
his lips. The murderer to the murderer, and yet a word of 
reproof. An open confession not only of their own guilt, but 
also of the guiltlessness of Him who hangs on the cross beside 
them. An open confession, by which, in spite of his conscious- 
ness of guilt, he dares to reprove those who stand below the 
cross. And lastly a request, which touchingly gives evidence 
how quickly the human heart appreciates the way to the Sav- 
iour, appreciates the only true Saviour, after the first step 
has been taken, the step of conviction. We are all sinners. 
There is none that doeth good, no, not one. 

At the left, sorrow makes a heart to lift itself up in 
grim hatred. At the right, the heart humbly bows: I have 
deserved it, Lord, strike me. If I am yet saved, it is grace and 
nothing but grace.. 

And this is the first experience of grace which comes to 
him, the first reward of his sincerity, that in the midst of the 
shadows of death, the Lord imparts to him a luminous view 
of the truth. The man of sorrows and blood at your side, is 
the one that taketh away the sins of the world. In contrast 
to the scornful word of doubt: "If thou art the Cnirst," this 
one receives the consoling certainty: This is He,, of whom the 
prophets told, whose blood was reflected in all the bloody sac- 
rifices of the old covenant; it is He, the everlasting high priest, 
who once for all, beareth the sins of mankind, who now gives 
his life a sarifice for many. 

The first step on the way of life is here plainly pointed 
out: Conviction, confession of sin, and refuge in the sin- 



81 

bearer. And as a result of this humble disposition, courage is 
found for the confession before many witnesses, the only, but 
decisive deed of newly awakening faith, whicn for the dying 
remains the last step. 

Do you understand the meaning of this sermon? If you 
wish to battle against the malefactor at the left, who lives 
in us all, as the one on the right battled against him, here 
is shown the way, the only way. It is, conviction of sin. 

How is that? Am I to compare myself with the mur- 
derer? Indeed, for it is not a question of HOW you have 
sinned, but -a question of THAT you have sinned. If any man, 
fully conscious of the fulfillment of life's duty and civic honesty 
on his part, if any woman, conscious of her purity, shrank 
from such a confession, as if it were a matter of unmanly weak- 
ness, could there be really nothing to sin, since it required a 
sacrifice such as we see there hanging on the cross? Is it 
not rather cowardice to turn away from the mirror held before 
us in the form of the cross of God's Son? Is it not rather 
unmanly weakness to be slow in recognizing a duty, which on 
Calvary is plainly written in bloody hand-writing. 

"What have I done amiss?" someone exclaims in strange 
self-deception. And the Scripture in holy earnestness retorts: 
"He who knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is 
sin." Where in the immeasurably wide field of opportunity 
is that evidence of your love, which grateful love requires? 
Every tear which you did not dry, when you might have done 
so, weighs heavily in the divine balance. 

What evil have I committed? Would you care to lay 
open all that you have thought, that you have said and done, 
even in the hearing or in the sight of father, mother, sister 
and brother? And if not, God knows it all. And every in- 
nocent creature who has been poisoned by your foolish words, 



82 

every unfortunate soul whom you have advanced on the road 
to destruction, is inscribed on the pages of God's book of life, 
in which the least has equal value with the most influential 
on earth. 

A most formidable influence now marches over the earth 
like a mighty army, devastating more life, working more dis- 
tress, carrying along with itself more torrents of blood and tears 
than the most horrible murder or the bloodiest war. It is 
apostacy from God, which goes hand in hand with apostacy 
from morality, peace, progress, and all blissful order. And will 
you place yourself above the murderer on the right, can you 
boast yourself as one not in need of grace, when your Chris- 
tian example, as that of one to whom the weaker ones look 
up, when your word, your indifference and unfaithfulness to- 
wards the church, will advance defection instead of staying 
it? For the sake of Christ on the cross, look into the mirror, 
and let it speak to you. What does the cross of Christ mean 
to you? Is it a call to God? 



111. 



And now the word of grace. "Verily I say unto thee, 
today shalt thou be with me in Paradise." The first word on 
the cross is still a petition to the Father in heaven: "Father, 
forgive them, for they know not what they do." The sacrific- 
ing high priest interceded for his people. Now He knows that 
his prayer has been answered, his sacrifice accepted. He lias 
truly borne our sins in his body on the cross. It has been 
realized in him: "Though your sins be red like crimson, they 
shall be as white as snow." 

Mercifully now, therefore, after the manner of a victori- 
ous king, who from his elevated position witnesses the victory 
of his army, Christ turns to the petitioner: "Lord," thou 



83 

say est; indeed I am the Lord of life and death; therefore, 
"verily, I say unto thee," out of the fullness of power. Your 
request is, "remember me;" not only will I remember thee, 
but "thou shalt be with me in paradise" — with me, the king 
of heaven. "When Thou comest into Thy kingdom." I am 
going thither now. Therefore, "today shalt thou be with me 
in paradise," today art thou to enjoy blessed freedom from sin, 
and partake of immediate communion with thy God. The 
malefactor on the cross becomes the herald who first brings 
to the redeemed spirits in paradise the message: Christ has 
won the victory, the victory which henceforth bespeaks freedom 
from sin, death and the devil. 

The Highpriestly king through the malefactor promul- 
gates the same assurance to a world which like him comes 
•over on the Lord's side. The earth shaking in its very founda- 
tions; the graves opening their jaws, and the dead proceeding 
from them; the curtain in the temple rent from top to bottom; 
a heathen moved in view of such a death to make a good con- 
fession; a most wonderful death, showing in strange signs out 
of the pierced side the powers of a new and higher existence; 
the fear of the enemies of the dead Judas, and the newly 
awakened courage of Joseph of Arimathea i nd Nicodemus, 
which they did not dare to show for the living Christ; heaven 
and earth, the quick and the dead, nature and humanity — 
they all testify that the word of the crucified must endure 
forever. Whether the earth be split or the firmament go to 
destruction, the Word does not yield and is never shaken. 

You are called Christians. Would you like your death to be 
like this death? You still enjoy a time of grace. But you 
do not know for how long. Then so live as to honor your 
Christian name. Accept centre and star of Christianity, Jesus 
Christ. Come to his cross, be reconciled to God. No reply 
is given to the malefactor on the left. His fate is sealed. 



84 

As now, with broken limbs, he departs, so will be his awak- 
ening, an awakening in terror. He would not be called a sin- 
ner. He needed no grace. Now grace has he none. 

The blessed one on the right now lives with Jesus in happy 
cornmunion, and what lips could stammer, in forethought even, 
the secret of divine love into which his soul has been merged, 
the glorious duties of divine love which have fallen to his por- 
tion. For all the buds which here spring up, develop and 
bloom in eternity to flowers glorious and divine. 

"Today shalt thou be with me in paradise," the Saviour 
says. Be in earnest about the fulfillment of the duty of love, 
in order that you may be in earnest also about grace. Each 
passing day, in your battle with the world, you may experience 
loving communion with God and practice it in that life of 
faith and love upon which grows the hope of eternal salva- 
tion. This is the cross. Choose now: Life or death. 

I know of but one choice. God grant that our choice for 
life and death may be and remain this: 

If all become unfaithful, I, Lord, will e'er be true, 
Lest there be none to worship in gratefulness to you. 
FOR ME thou sufferdest, Master, FOR ME in pain didst 
part; 

Therefore in joy forever I bring my loving heart. Amen.. 

R. N. 



IX. 

"It is Finished." 

By 

Dr. G. Baur. 

Consistorial Councillor and University Preacher at Leipzig. 



GOOD-FRIDAY MORNING. 

Text: John 19, 30. 
"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, 
It is finished; and he bowed his head, and gave up his spirit." 



Peace be unto all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen. 

Yes, beloved brethren, the Lord's own purchase, where 
Jesus is, there is peace; and those who are in Christ have 
peace. Whether storms brew without and great violence rages 
on life's seas, so that your frail barques are often well-nigh 
lost; if you have Jesus with you on the voyage, and if you 
pray to him: Lord, save us; we perish, he will rebuke the 
winds and the sea with his blessed Peace, be still. "In the 
world ye have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have over- 
come the world." To seek this peace, the blessed and joy- 
ful peace which is the fruit of faith in Christ Jesus, — to seek 
this, I say, is the opportunity especially of this Holy Week. 
For this reason you are not to suffer the hallowed stillness of 
this week to be broken by the confusion which reigns in the 
world without, nor by the anxieties of life which hold captive 
so many hearts and deprive them of the "one thing needful." 



86 

During this week you ought to maintain the same mind which 
God awakened in Moses by his command: "Put off thy shoes 
from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is hoi., 
ground." This very day indeed requires such a mind in us. 
For, Good Friday is the memorial of the day when mankind 
experienced the holiest and most blessed hour of its entire 
being, and also, when our race stood upon the holiest spot 
of earth. Good Friday carries us back to Calvary, to the foot 
of the cross, on which the Only Begotten of God died a male- 
factor's death, that we miserable sinners might be reconciled 
to God. At such a place, and in such an hour, inexpressible 
thoughts and feelings must stir the human heart, driving out 
pride and vanity, and bringing a sacred stillness. And what 
does the heart learn from it? Messages of eternal life ring 
down from the cross, which are the blessed heritage left us by 
the dying Redeemer in his cry of triumph and victory: "It 
is finished," messages, which tell the soul that by the death 
of the crucified, death itself has been destroyed, and life and 
immortality brought to light. "O sacred Head, now wounded," 
bow thyself in mercy unto us. Grant to us quickening tokens 
of thy presence. Fill our hearts with the spirit of devout 
and serious meditation; yea, with the spirit of repentance and 
faith, that we may indeed receive and believe those gracious 
words, spoken by thy dying lips, and keep and treasure them in 
our hearts, to be unto us spirit and life. 

Our text is the immediate suggestion of the proper subject 
for our Good Friday meditation. Gathered in spirit beneath 
the cross, we are with one mind to consider this word of the 
Crucified: "It is finished." It may properly be noted that 
he does not say: "It is all over." His dying word was not 
the last sigh of a departing spirit, freed at last from the suf- 
ferings of the world. On the contrary, he says: "It is finished." 
Even his death was the free deed of his merciful love, by which 



87 

he finished his whole redemptive work appointed unto him by 
the Father. 

The work of redemption has always been interpreted by 
the Church as consisting in a three-fold office: prophetic, 
sacerdotal and royal. And this interpretation rests not upon 
arbitrary ideas of men, but upon the very nature of redemption. 
To set forth the relationship, by which the soul may find a 
truly satisfying fellowship with the Father, the work of the 
prophet is, first of all, necessary, to declare and to explain 
the being and character of God and his relation to the world 
and mankind; and, following this, the work of the priest is 
needed, by whose mediation and intercession the true relation- 
ship between God and man is established; and to this must be 
added the work of the King, who most gloriously reigns and 
fulfills what was declared by prophet and done by priest. As 
this three-fold office had a place in the days of preparation, in 
the Old Testament, so it is necessary also in the fulfillment. 
The great Head of the New Testament must, therefore, fulfill 
this three-fold office; he must be the one true Prophet, High- 
priest and King. Let us see now in how far 

JESUS CHRIST BY HIS DEATH FINISHED HIS REDEMP- 
TIVE WORK, 

as regards: 

1. His prophetic calling, 

2. His high-priestly mediation, and, 

3. His royal prerogative. 

I. 

While Jesus was preaching those matchless words of life, 
and testifying to their truth by his unique personality and 
many mighty works, the people confessed and said: "Behold, a 



great prophet is risen among us," and, "God hath visited his 
people." For, a prophet, in the sense of the Holy Scriptures, 
is not merely one who fortells the future; but he is a mouth- 
piece of God, a man divinely called and sent, and divinely en- 
dowed with the Spirit and with power to declare the truth in 
its highest sense, the whole counsel of God. In the Old Testa- 
ment, therefore, Abraham is called a prophet, because he de- 
clared to his house the revelation which God had made of him- 
self. Thus, in the same manner also, Moses is a prophet, for he 
taught the children of Israel to reverence the glorious majesty 
of the law and to worship God, whom they had well-nigh forgot- 
ten amid the trials of their bondage. And the later prophets, 
who continued the work begun by Moses, spoke not merely of 
the future revelations of God's grace and the establishment of 
his Kingdom, but they continued also to preach to the people, 
to explain and enforce the knowledge of God, and kept constant- 
ly reminding them, that, as they valued their eternal salvation, 
they dare not forget God, but must serve him in faithful obedi- 
ence. This was the work of an Old Testament prophet. And thus, 
he who came to fulfill the preparatory work of the old cove- 
nant in the new, also discharged the whole prophetic office by 
his perfect witness to God and his truth. The people, there- 
fore, were right when they called Jesus of Nazareth that 
Prophet, mighty in word and deed before God and man. 

But in fulfilling for all time that which the prophets had 
said and done, he is more than a prophet. Thus, the beginning 
of the epistle to the Hebrews declares: "God, having of old 
time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions 
and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken 
unto us in his Son." The Spirit, who had been given unto the 
prophets of the Old Testament in divers portions and manners, 
dwelt in Jesus without measure, in all his fulness. The light, 
which shone in other prophets only now and then, became in 



89 

Christ the Sun of Righteousness — the Light of the world. 
The everlasting Word of God, which was known to others only 
in partial revelations, became flesh in Christ and is the very 
essence of his Being. Therefore, he is the true and faithful 
Witness, in whose mouth is no guile, and who spoke the truth 
as it is in God. And not alone by his teaching did he reveal the 
truth, but he is himself the truth, the revelation of God and 
the express image of his person. Therefore, whoso seeth the 
Son, seeth the Father. And, like that disciple whom Jesus 
loved, all believers may rejoice in the revelation of the great 
mystery: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, 
(and we beheld his glory, a glory as of the only Begotten of the 
Father) full of grace and truth." 

And this is it, my beloved, what the Prophet of the New 
Testament, the Son of God, has revealed unto us — grace and 
truth: the eternal truth of God, before whom no unrighteous- 
ness can stand, and in the light of whose holiness our own 
fallen state receives its just punishment; but also the grace 
and mercy of God, who desires not the death of the sinner, 
but that he should repent and live, and who gave his only Be- 
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish 
but have everlasting life. This revelation of the eternal truth 
and grace of God Jesus Christ finished in his death upon the 
cross. Even in his bitterest agonies the mouth of our holy 
Prophet was not stopped. Upon the cross he showed forth his 
and his Father's boundless love, in that he prayed for his cruel 
enemies, who knew not what they were doing. Upon the cross 
he promised the penitent thief: "Today, thou shalt be with me 
in Paradise." Upon the cross his loving care for his Mother, 
through whose soul a sword was piercing, and for the disciple 
whom he loved, showed that he would not forsake his own, but 
would comfort them and care for them in every trial and temp- 
tation. Upon the cross he showed by his thirst that he is truly 



90 

our Brother and shares our sorrows; and by his: "My God, ray 
God, why hast thou forsaken me?" he demonstrated that he 
had humbled himself into the lowest depths of our infamy and 
bore all our sins. But upon the cross by his word of triumph: 
"It is finished," he declared also that he had made the utmost 
revelation of the truth and grace of God. For, truth which is 
confessed unto death is surely well established, and love which 
endures the death of the cross is perfectly guaranteed. 

And we, who own him as our Lord and confess the truth 
■of his Word, want to celebrate this day of his death so as to be 
a renewal of our allegiance to him, and a rejection of all the 
false prophets who would lead us astray and bring us to the 
leaking fountains of human wisdom, where the waters of life 
are not. Let us, therefore, confess, as Simon Peter once did: 
"Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal 
life, and we have believed and confessed that thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God." 



Though the prophetic calling did not content itself with 
the mere announcement of the future of God's Kingdom, this 
was nevertheless an integral part of the prophet's work. 
Through the law it had been found to be impossible to secure 
such communion with God as would give the soul perfect peace. 
The law only enabled earnest souls, conscious of their wide 
separation from God, to see more clearly their utter helpless- 
ness. Therefore, the prophets foretold the grace of God, which 
would accomplish what was impossible under the law; and they 
foresaw also the Redeemer, the God-man, who, according to the 
image of the personal union of the divine and human in him- 
self, would receive all those who love his appearing and grant 
them union with God, and thus be the Mediator of the new and 



9.1 

everlasting covenant. And that which the prophets had thus 
seen and foretold, became deed and truth in Jesus of Nazajeth; 
and his mediation between God and man, to which his own 
divine-human personality ordained him, constitutes his priestly 
office, by which all that he taught as Prophet is made possible 
of realization in the hearts and lives of believers. During his 
whole life the Lord Jesus mediated as our High-Priest. That 
which Isaiah had foretold more than seven hundred years be- 
fore of "the Branch out of Jesse," upon whom would rest the 
Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the 
Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of the knowledge and 
the fear of the Lord — that was fulfilled in -Jesus of Nazareth. 
In him the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily; and in him, 
fallen and corrupt human nature is again lifted up into oneness 
with divine truth and holiness, and man is declared anew to be 
in the image of God. "To as many as received him, he gave 
power to become sons of God." Of him they learned, and unto 
him they confessed, that through him the Father in heaven 
visits his children, redeems them from sin and its curse, and 
grants unto them everlasting life. But as expressly as Jesus 
also revealed the truth and grace of God, in order to restore 
mankind to fellowship with the Father, carnal expectations of 
a kingdom of external splendor and power hindered his King- 
dom from finding its true place in their own hearts. Those 
blinded souls still failed to grasp the terrible depths of their 
own ruin and the fearful power of sin, whose prey they had 
become. Even those who had become more deeply conscious 
of their sin and guilt also still lacked the highest revelation of 
eternal mercy, which alone could assure them that God would 
be gracious and remember their sins no more. Therefore, the 
High-priest of our profession had to fulfill the final and great- 
est requirement of his office. He had to take upon himself 
the whole burden of human sin and guilt, and atone for it in 



92 

his own body, as Isaiah also foretold: — "Surely he hath borne 
our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him 
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded 
for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the 
chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes 
we are healed." 

Therefore, only his death enabled Jesus to say with respect 
to his Priesthood: "It is finished." Only after he had set 
his face steadfastly to go up to Jerusalem, did he tell his dis- 
ciples that all things which were written in the prophets con- 
cerning the Son of man should be accomplished. And just 
preceding today's text, it is written: "After this Jesus know- 
ing that all things are now accomplished, that the Scriptures 
might be fulfilled, saith, "I thirst." Thus again, the Savior 
testified that He has actually become partaker of the limitations 
and needs of our nature, and that his sufferings were real, 
pains as bitter as only a man could bear; but after that his 
triumphant, "It is finished," openly declared that his death 
was not the result of a conquest on the part of the world, 
but the victory by which he overcame the world. Neverthe- 
less, for this victory a precious price had to be paid. The 
High-priest of our profession gave himself as the one eternally 
valid sacrifice. And what are the message and comfort of 
this sacrifice? The cross on Calvary is raised as the appalling 
sign of the terrible might of human sin, which did not stop 
short of lifting murderous hands against the Son of God. But 
at the same time it is also raised to be a quickening sign of 
the everlasting grace of God, who spared not his own Son, but 
laid the punishment of which we sinners were guilty upon him. 
that we might have peace. Thus, the cross of Christ most 
stirringly declares: "Be ye reconciled unto God." Turn with 
loathing from sin, which nailed the Son of the Highest to the 



93 

tree, and with rejoicing lay hold of the grace which the Father 
in heaven offers you in his crucified Son. 

Beloved, let us so celebrate this day that this gracious 
message may truly reach our hearts. Let us not love this 
world, whose pleasures he renounced, and whose bloody hatred 
he took upon himself that we might be delivered from the 
bondage of the beggarly elements. No, rather let us most 
heartily consecrate ourselves to him, who purchased us with 
his precious blood to be his very own. Let us not trust in 
our own goodness, but seek in him a righteousness through 
his blood, which can cleanse the conscience from dead works, 
to serve the living God. And may he, who upon the cross 
finished the sacrific for sin, grant unto us both to will and to 
do that which is well pleasing in his sight. 

III. 

As Prophet, Jesus became our wisdom; as High-priest he 
was made our righteousness and sanctification; and as King- 
he will finally deliver us from the evil of this present world. 
As Prophet he taught the way of the Lord perfectly; as Priest 
he delivered those who believe in him from the guilt of sin. 
But his people are still in the midst of an evil and perverse 
generation, beset by many snares and dangers. But such a 
state of struggle for the children of God cannot continue for- 
ever, for God is not merely the All-wise, Holy and Merciful 
One, but also the Almighty Lord. And the Son is one in 
power with the Father; and he will, as the true and only King 
of his people, lead them to final victory and translate them 
from the Church militant to the Church triumphant. 

His word: "It is finished," — does therefore also apply 
to his kingly ofBce, though his royal glory will not be fully 
revealed until the end of days, when all things are perfected 



94 

and made new. But he inaugurated his Kingdom, when he 
finished his work upon the cross. His cross became the step- 
ping-stone to his throne. This is the sense of what is said 
after his resurrection: "Behooved it not the Christ to suffer 
these things and to enter into his glory." And the apostle 
says of the Author and Perfector of our faith, that "for the 
joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising 
the shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne 
of God." For the King, whose kingdom is not of this world, 
there can indeed be no other way to the throne of his glory; 
the Almighty himself in his infinite wisdom prepared none 
other. Therefore, the writer to the Hebrews says: "For it 
became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are 
all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the Author 
of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Jesus, our King, 
does not seek by external power to bring men into subjection 
unto him, but he strives to win them by the power of his 
great love. To show this love, in which he sought not his own 
things, but the salvation of the brethren, he laid aside his 
divine glory and took upon himself the form of a servant. 
And to let his light shine for his blinded enemies, he endured 
the deepest shame, and the bitterest sufferings. Throughout his 
whole ministry he showed that he had not come to condemn 
the world, but to save it; not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Thus, he 
won for himself a peculiar people as his inheritance, and im- 
planted in their hearts a love which is stronger than death, 
and which overcomes all earthly trials and sorrows. 

But also to the Church, struggling against the adversities 
of the world, he shows himself as the One, unto whom all 
power hath been given in heaven and on earth. And, in the 
case of individual believers, he proves his word, that to him, 
who seeks first the Kingdom of God, all needful things shall be 



95 

added. In the life of nations he makes the world's history 
its judgment, inasmuch as faithfulness to him exalts, and for- 
getfulness of him ruins a nation. These are monitory and 
warning signs of the final judgment, when the throne of his 
glory will be revealed unto all, and when every man shall re- 
ceive according to the deeds done in the body, whether they 
were good or evil, and into whose ante-chamber we shall all, 
and perhaps sooner than we think, be ushered by the messen- 
ger of death. 

O beloved, these thoughts should deeply stir us. We are 
still living in the day of grace. Our King still seeks to win us 
by the power of his love. We still hear the tender plea of the 
cross: "Be ye reconciled unto God." O, let this plea not be 
in vain today. Let us hear it now; and when we leave the 
sanctuary, let it ring in our hearts amid the noise and tumult 
of the world, that we may not forget our allegiance to the 
Lord our King, and thus we shall escape the shame and pain 
of the Judgment. 

And do thou, who hast purchased us with thy blood, grant 
that thy word of triumph and victory be fulfilled also in 
our perfect redemption. Let thy Word be a light upon all our 
ways. Fill our hearts with the comfort of that peace which 
thou didst secure for us upon the cross. Permit not the suf- 
ferings of this world to rob us of thy consolation, nor let the 
power of the world snatch us from thy hand. And grant, that 
at last, after a well spent life, we may take our departure in 
the full assurance that thou, the Crucified and Risen One, wilt 
receive our spirits into the Father's House. Amen. 

F. C. L. 



The Burial of Jesus. 

By 

John Quandt. 

Pastor of the Evangelical Church in the Hague. 



GOOD-FRIDAY EVENING. 

Text: Luke 23: 50 — 56. 
"And behold, a man named Joseph, who was a councillor, 
a good and righteous man (he had not consented to their coun- 
sel and deed), a man of Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was 
looking for the Kingdom of God: this man went to Pilate, and 
asked for the body of Jesus. And he took it down, and 
wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb that was 
hewn in stone, where never man had yet lain. And it was the 
day of the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. And the 
women, who had come with him out of Galilee, followed after, 
and beheld the tomb, and how his body was laid. And they re- 
turned and prepared spices and ointments." 



Good Friday evening. Again the day sinks to rest which 
once witnessed the hiding of the sun and the rending of the 
temple's veil; that day of which one so sweetly sings: 

"O, day of gloom and sadness, 
Thy night of bitter weeping, 
Prepareth light and gladness 
For souls in Jesus sleeping." 

Now they bear the Holy One, the Crucified, from Calvary's 



97 

hill to the quiet garden, and lay him into the rock-hewn tomb, 
where never man had yet lain, thus fulfilling the prophecy of 
the evangelist of the Old Testament: "They made his grave 
with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death.'' 

Jesus buried. 0, are ye able to comprehend it, ye souls 
of Mary and Joseph, and thou Nicodemus, who once earnest 
to him by night. Jesus buried. Those holy lips which so 
often prayed and spoke words of comfort, which warned and 
taught as never man spake; those blessed eyes, which searched 
men's uttermost souls and brought warmth to troubled hearts 
by the brightness of their love; those hands, which wrought 
so many deeds of kindness — they are buried. Jesus buried. 
O, are ye able to comprehend it, ye thousands whom he blessed, 
whose diseases he healed, whose iniquities he forgave. Jesus 
buried. Thou widow of Nain, who receivedst thy dead to life 
again, dost thou comprehend? Thou Centurion of Capernaum, 
whose child he restored before thou knewest it, dost thou know? 
Thou man born blind, whom he gave thy sight that thou 
sawest the Son of God, hast thou seen it — Jesus buried? Thou 
woman taken in adultery, whom he absolved with his gracious 
word: "Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more," 
hast thou been told? And thou Mary of Bethany, who wast 
nearer to him than all his disciples, whom he understood so 
well and gave thee the assurance that thou hadst chosen the 
good part, art thou there? To thee he was so precious that 
thou gavest him thy best. Jesus buried. O, all ye souls 
whom he so richly blessed by his ministry, can ye grasp that 
bitter truth? And thou Church of today canst thou measure 
the depth of woe which those felt who had lost their All? 
O, try to fathom what it means when it is said: Jesus is 
buried. 

But why must he also be buried? Was it not enough for 
his sacred Head to bow in mortal pain upon the cross? Could 



he not gloriously come to life again, without being buried, and 
thus come down from the tree of shame and show himself 
among terrified enemies and rejoicing friends as the Prince of 
life? Why must he also be buried? 

O, all ye, who have raised tomb-stones in yonder church- 
yard — one, two, three and more — one for mother, one on 
father's grave, those over the little mounds where the children 
sleep, that heavy one over the dust of husband or wife — O, 
tarry again by the side of that grave in the garden of Joseph 
of Arimathea. He who slept there had become like unto your 
best beloved, not only in dying, but also in being buried. Like 
your best beloved, so was he also carried out, a lifeless corpse, 
and laid into the bosom of the earth, away from your tender 
gaze. Jesus buried, why? For your sake and for mine, to 
quicken us in hope. 

For, as he became like unto our beloved in being buried, 
so shall they become like him in being raised from tne dead. 
As the grave could not hold him, neither shall it be able to 
hold you and yours. "But every man in his order. Christ 
the first fruits; afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming." 
Your sainted father. Your beloved mother sleeping in Jesus. 
Your child, plucked like an opening bud. Your husband gone 
home. Your wife of a year. Hear it, O hear it, beloved, the 
bells of Easter softly echo in the measured tolling of Good 
Friday: the solemn Requiem is broken by the Hallelujah- 
Chorus of Easter Day. 

"Jesus Christ, my sure defence 
And my Savior, ever liveth; 
Knowing this, my confidence 
Rests upon the hope it giveth, 
Though the night of death be frought 
Still with many an anxious thought." 



99 

Note again those who are standing about the tomb 
of the Lord. There is the councillor of Arimathea, a city of 
the Jews, a just man and devout, who also waited for the 
Kingdom of God, the same had not consented to their will 
and deed. He is a man of influence, one of the few rich men 
who are saved. He is a learned man, one of the few who is 
not wise above what is written, to the word of the cross was 
not foolishness, but the highest wisdom and ground of salva- 
tion. He is a brave man, who feared not the displeasure of 
Pilate, but boldly begged the body of Jesus. Are there men 
of prominence and influence here today? Are you also minded 
like Joseph of Arimathea? Do you have the courage in the 
highest places to acknowledge yourselves as followers of the 
Crucified? And do you rejoice to give of your substance to 
him? Joseph brought his fine linen for the burial. 

And the women also are there. The evangelists tell us 
of only one woman who was among the enemies of Christ — 
that maid who accosted Peter in the house of Caiaphas, — the 
others were all the Lord's friends. Even today the Lord has 
the largest following among the women. Mary had the deep- 
est comprehension of the Lord. Wherefore, my sisters, let no 
man take from you that good part which you have chosen. 
Hold fast to that which you have, that no man take your 
crown. Prepare him sweet spices and ointments — your prayers 
and your alms. 

In obedience to the law they rested over the Sabbath. 
But rest becomes the silence of the tomb. Let us also rest. 
Yes, rest, ye humble souls, and dry your tears. Rest, ye 
weary and heavy laden, and consider the things which belong 
to your peace. Rest, ye tempted and tried, and pray for the 
gift of the Holy Spirit Yes, let us all, who are here assembled 
in view of the grave of Jesus, find rest for our souls. Let 



LOFC. 



100 

the whole earth be silent before him, and rest. This is the 
message of Good Friday evening, — Jesus is buried, but we 
answer: 

"To me the darksome tomb 

Is but a narrow room, 

Where I may rest in peace, from sorrow free. 

His death shall give me power 

To cry in that dark hour, 

O Death, O Grave, where is thy victory? Amen." 

F. C. L. 



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